Time Cube
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Template:ConfusedTemplate:Infobox website Time Cube was a pseudoscientific personal web page set up in 1997 by Otis Eugene "Gene" Ray.<ref name="MC" >Template:Cite news</ref> It was a self-published outlet for Ray's "theory of everything", also called "Time Cube", which claims that all modern sciences are participating in a worldwide conspiracy to omit his theory, which posits that each day actually consists of four days occurring simultaneously.<ref name="PCMag" /> Ray described himself as the "wisest man on earth"<ref name="MC" /> and a "godlike being with superior intelligence who has absolute evidence and proof" for his views. Ray asserted repeatedly and variously that the academic world had not taken Time Cube seriously.<ref name=Swarthmore/>
According to Find a Grave, Ray died on 18 March 2015, and the Time Cube website registration expired in August 2015.<ref name=aro/>
WebsiteEdit
The Time Cube website did not have a navigation structure such as a menu or a central home page, instead it was one long continuous page.<ref name="MC" /> A large amount of self-invented jargon is used throughout, often never defined. In one paragraph, Ray claimed that his own wisdom "so antiquates known knowledge" that a psychiatrist examining his behavior diagnosed him with schizophrenia.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20080709075217/http://www.timecube.com/, "My wisdom so antiquates known knowledge, that a psychiatrist examining my behavior, eccentric by his academic single corner knowledge, knows no course other than to judge me schizoprenic."</ref>
Adi Robertson of The Verge commented that Ray's theory of time is "an incredibly confusing one peppered with racism and homophobia".<ref name=aro/>
Time Cube conceptEdit
Ray's personal model of reality, called "Time Cube", states that all of modern physics and education is wrong,<ref name="PCMag" /> and argues that, among many other things, Greenwich Time is a global conspiracy. He uses various graphs (along with pictures of himself) that purport to show how each day is really four separate days—SUN-UP, MID-DAY, SUN-DOWN, and MID-NIGHT (formerly morning, early afternoon, late afternoon, and evening)—occurring simultaneously.<ref name="MC" /><ref name="Swarthmore">Template:Cite news</ref>
The following quotation from the website illustrates the recurring theme: Template:Quote
Ray offered $1,000<ref name="Time Cube">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> or $10,000<ref name="Swarthmore" /> to anyone who could prove his views wrong.
ReceptionEdit
Ray spoke about Time Cube at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in January 2002 as part of a student-organized extra-curricular event during the independent activities period.<ref name="mit">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He repeated his $10,000 offer for professors to disprove his notions at the event; none attempted it.<ref name=Swarthmore/> John C. Dvorak wrote in PC Magazine that "Metasites that track crackpot sites often say this is the number one nutty site."<ref name="PCMag">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He also characterized the site's content as "endless blather."<ref name="PCMag" /> When asked by Martin Sargent in 2003 how it felt to be an Internet celebrity, Ray stated that it was not a position he wanted, but something he felt he had to do as "no writer or speaker understands the Time Cube."<ref name="techtv">Template:Cite episode</ref> Ray also spoke about Time Cube at the Georgia Institute of Technology in April 2005, delivering a speech in which he attacked the instruction offered by academics.<ref name="Technique">Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2005, Brett Hanover made Above God, a short documentary film about Ray and Time Cube.<ref name="Hanover">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The film was likely named after one of Ray's websites, which criticized the idea that God exists.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Hanover's film won awards for Best Documentary at the Indie Memphis Film Festival and the Atlanta Underground Film Festival.<ref name="Flyer2005">Harrington, Chris. (October 28, 2005). "Act One among the big winners at Indie Memphis". Memphis Flyer. Contemporary Media Inc. Archived from the original. On July 30, 2010. Retrieved July 22, 2023.</ref><ref name="Flyer2008">Finger, Michael. (April 18, 2008). "Memphians Premiere New Film at Nashville Film Festival". Memphis Flyer. Contemporary Media Inc. Archived July 29, 2010. Retrieved July 22, 2023.</ref>
In popular cultureEdit
The song "To the End of the World" on Alestorm's 2017 album No Grave But the Sea makes several references to the Time Cube concept.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
NotesEdit
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
- Official website archived at the Wayback Machine on May 6, 2015
- Gene Ray interviewed on Tech TV
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