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This thought was inspired by Serban Tanasa's question regarding engineering one's luck, since luck is time variant (depends explicitly upon time) and a fifth or higher dimensional being "can" experiences all alternate times at once... remember in physics class when teacher mentioned a particular counter-intuitive fact about quantum physics of double slit is that the present can affect the past however this is irrelevent right now only an interesting fact.

My question is since a higher dimensional being is capable of omni-experiencing-and-perceiving-all-times since big bang till end of time or perhap time is looping, can they feel lucky? or let's stretch our imagination further since we have multiple spatial dimensions maybe these beings see area or volume of time and luck applies differently than ours, a possibility.

Note:

Fifth dimensions mean 3 spatial dimensions your length, width and height and 2 timelines. Or some may argue it is 4 spatial dimensions plus 1 timeline it doesn't matters so long the beings can affect the past, present and future simultaneously.

Suppose we see the being drops a vase and it is accelerated towards the ground, from the being perspective there are numerous amount of same vase at different heights and on some timelines the vase neither existed nor broken. The being can also see the fragments reassemble back into a vase while levitating off the ground.

Imagine walking down a street where you sees many copies of younger and older self each doing different things and in one of the timelines you are either dead or never existed.

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  • $\begingroup$ By 5 dimensions, I think you mean 3 space + 1 time + parallel timelines? $\endgroup$
    – JDługosz
    Jun 30, 2015 at 4:44
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    $\begingroup$ You should edit to make that clear, then delete these comments. $\endgroup$
    – JDługosz
    Jun 30, 2015 at 4:49
  • $\begingroup$ No: because on most timelines that being never existed, and since that being realizes this, on all other timelines that being goes insane. ;) $\endgroup$
    – Ayelis
    Jun 30, 2015 at 15:37

2 Answers 2

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Before I begin I feel like the general understanding of 3+ dimensional beings is that for them time is just another physical dimension. One of the comments mentioned that this entity can "simply walk from one point in time to another".

I beg to differ here. Please bear with me as this is related to answering the question.

You do realize that every time you walk to literally any place you're travelling in time right? You're not consciously travelling in time but you're essentially moving steadily forward along the axis of time all the time anyway. Now if time were a physical dimension, i.e. you can simply walk/climb/swim to the past or future, how is the time you spent walking/climbing/swimming accounted for? In other words, you're effectively moving along two time dimensions, one which you traverse as a physical dimension and the other you continue traversing as you do now.

I propose that a higher entity with the ability to exist in more than 3 dimensions must necessarily possess a cognitive ability to traverse time, not a physical one. Think Dr. Manhattan, not Interstellar.

EDIT: Pursuant to the comment made by User, I'm rejigging the answer to exclude a cognitive perception of all possible timelines and include a physical one. Though on really thinking about it, the final answer and explanation do not change much.

Answer

We have an entity that travels across time like a physical dimension. Now if such an entity were to encounter great luck or misfortune, I do not believe it would make any difference in terms of the entity taking cognizance of it.

If such an entity won the lottery, it would still consider itself lucky. My chances of winning a lottery are low, and it would be a great surprise if I won the lottery as a normal human being. As a higher entity, I may know I am bound to win the lottery, since I see myself winning it a few feet to the left or a mile down the line, whereby it would be no surprise to me, but I'd still be aware that it takes incredible luck to win something like that. I reckon I'd still feel grateful and lucky about it.

Luck, as Frostfyre points out, is independent of time. Probability on the other hand, is completely dependent on viewpoint which may be before or after a fact in time. Which brings me to the question of serendipity.

As defined by Webster Serendipity is "the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for."

There appears to be an element of discovery to serendipity. It is not merely feeling lucky, it is feeling lucky in circumstances where it was not expected. And there, I believe, lies the answer. When you're a being incapable of being surprised, I don't think you can find anything "unexpected", thereby rendering you incapable of feeling this emotion altogether. My answer, in light of the above, is therefore no - a higher being capable of existing in all times at once cannot experience a serendipitous moment.

Unless you're saying it takes a long amount of time (the second time dimension) to traverse time (the first time dimension). In that case, discovery of time-related facts would be much akin to discovery of physical features when out on a drive in the plains. Since we're explicitly excluding precognition, this seems plausible.

In that case, yes, surprise, discovery and serendipity, are all possible. I could walk down to the future and discover something valuable in an unexpected place (though it is in the future), and that would be serendipitous as per the definition wouldn't it? Really, the crux of it is this: how much do these beings know about their future? Not what they can discover, but what they are already aware of. Not knowing at first is the key to serendipity IMHO.

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  • $\begingroup$ Very thoughtful as usual I would like to collate answers, note that this isn't about precognition. $\endgroup$
    – user6760
    Jun 30, 2015 at 11:14
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Luck is, more or less, a perception of events by an individual. There are two general ideas about luck. The first identifies some supernatural force as the driver for what would otherwise be coincidence. The other is that luck is just a random series of events, either good or bad, that led to the end result.

I can't begin to detail how a fifth-dimensional being would perceive time, space, or reality. That being said, I would argue that luck is independent of time and, as such, any entity capable of rational thought can perceive a given series of events as lucky and, thus, feel lucky (or unlucky).

As a side note, I can't find any sources that identify a correlation between time and luck.

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  • $\begingroup$ I think the wise counts luck while genius think cause and effect, my argument is when the outcome of an action taken is not as expected we blamed on our luck. So if you can see all possible outcomes and already experienced from rotten luck to lady luck I believe that's what's being genius is all about. Good answer however better luck next time! $\endgroup$
    – user6760
    Jun 30, 2015 at 4:35
  • $\begingroup$ @user6760 An entity may be able to see every possible outcome, but that doesn't mean the entity will know which one will be the result. Regardless if there are a hundred possibilities or just two, chance can play a role in the outcome and surprise the entity in question. $\endgroup$
    – Frostfyre
    Jun 30, 2015 at 4:38
  • $\begingroup$ actually the entity went through all possible times and experienced the outcomes unlike watching a recording this being is role-playing every scenes simultaneously. For us the passage of time is in our mind however to this entity it/he/she can simply walk or from one time frame to another. $\endgroup$
    – user6760
    Jun 30, 2015 at 4:45
  • $\begingroup$ @user6760 So sequence of events A can be perceived as lucky and sequence of events B can be perceived as unlucky. The entity just perceives both. $\endgroup$
    – Frostfyre
    Jun 30, 2015 at 4:54
  • $\begingroup$ That's exactly what I meant my apology for not being clear as JDlugosz pointed out. $\endgroup$
    – user6760
    Jun 30, 2015 at 4:56

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