Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 47 — page 24: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

STRANGER IN TIME that neither space nor time can be thought of apart from each other. Everyone knows that nowadays—er—I mean, of course, in our own time. Anyway, I don’t see what there is so difficult about things. If your ships are capable of travelling through time, surely we couldn’t go wrong. All we have to do is to go either for- ward into the future, or back into the past, and that’s all there is to it.” “Unfortunately, Mr. Din- ton, that is not all there is to ig To Susan the whole situa- tion seemed unreal. She sank her head into her hands for a moment. It was crazy to imagine that she was sitting in some hut on some far- distant planet, possibly thous- ands of years out of her own time, listening to two men discussing problems of space and time. She pinched herself furtively, and felt again the sense of embarrassment as Janton smiled at her. “What would you say if I told you that the dimensions of space and time are quite literally infinite? Space—and time.” 23 “You mean——?” “Think of any three dimen- ° sional object. It is finite, of course. But it takes an infinite number of cross-sectional areas of infinitesimal thickness to make a three-dimensional solid. In the same way, it takes an infinite number of three-dimensional figures to make a finite four-dimensional figure, and an infinite number of four-dimensional figures to make one finite five-dimen- sional figure——”’ “But surely infinity is just a mathematical abstraction ?”’ “No one has ever yet seen a four-dimensional figure, and if such a thing exists, then mankind will never know it.” Janton’s voice was dry. “But the dimensions exist, exten- sions into unknown space- time continuums. The analogy I have given you is unspeak- ably crude, of course; your language is not advanced enough to give you a truer picture of the Greater Cosmos, but in the meantime you must accept my word for it that there is more than one dimen- sion of time, just as there is an infinite number of three dimensioned universes re- conmicloooks.conn