Hinton - The Fourth Dimension.pdf

THE FIRST CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF FOUR SPACE 25
If we pass a spiral through the film the intersection
will give us a point moving in a circle shown by the dotted
lines in the square. Suppose
now the spiral to be still and
the film to move vertically
upwards, the whole spiral will
be represented in the film of
the consecutive positions of the
point of intersection. In the
film the permanent evidence
of the spiral is experienced as
a time series—the record of
traversing the spiral is a point
Fig. 14.
moving in a circle. If now
we suppose a consciousness con-
nected with the film in such a way that the intersection of
the spiral with the film gives rise to a conscious experience,
we shall see that we have in the film a point moving in a
circle, conscious of its motion, knowing nothing of that
real spiral the record of the successive interactions of
which by the film is the motion of the point.
It is easy to imagine complicated structures of the
nature of the spiral, structures consisting of filaments,
and to suppose also that these structures are distinguishable
from each other at every section. If we consider
the intersections of these filaments with the film as it
passes to be the atoms constituting a filmar universe,
we shall have bodies corresponding to the filamentary
structure, and the positions of these structures with
regard to one another will give rise to bodies in the film
moving amongst one another. This mutual motion
is apparent merely. The reality is of permanent structures
stationary, and all the relative motions accounted for by
one steady movement of the film as a whole.