The Ether

Applying the true nature of the hypercube, or tesseract, but giving it life inside of the Marvel realm that accurately depicts its qualities as a 4-Dimensional measure polytope would be challenging, but not entirely infeasible. Its current depiction in the Marvel Cinematic Universe features the tesseract as a 3-Dimensional, light blue, glowing crystalline cube which held the Space Stone, one of six Infinity Stones. The Infinity Stones functioned as the backbone of modern civilization, six objects with distinct elements and powers predating the universe. Encapsulated within the Tesseract, the Space Stone existed on Asgard, celestial realm of Thor and Loki, locked safely inside Odin’s vault until it w

as brought to another Asgardian safe on Earth. The Tesseract is eventually transported to fictional Camp Lehigh in New Jersey, and decades later, in the era of Tony Stark and Iron Man, the potent cube’s possession keeps shifting–mirroring the shift in power throughout the series. From Stark to Mar-Velli to Yon-Rogg to Captain Marvel, the possession of the Tesseract alters with a whiplash-inducing pace. This is a staple of Marvel’s Phase 3 of movies. 

If not immediately obvious when watching the films, the Tesseract is not actually a physical manifestation of the hypercube. It is 3-Dimensional, a flaw in the most essential characterization of the hypercube, and rather than a hypersurface consisting of 8 cubical cells, the Tesseract is literally, a cube. However, frustrating scientific inconsistencies are the object of my 2 a.m. fascinations, so I am drawn to the challenge of transforming Marvel’s Tesseract into a functional object both inside that fictional world and in the 4th Dimension. 

If the purpose of the Tesseract is to safekeep the Space Stone, then theoretically the Space Stone should be able to exist in the 4th Dimension. The aforementioned abstract dimension requires a direction that humans cannot travel to, but can speculate about. To conceptualize this visually, Dr. Segerman, assistant professor of mathematics at Oklahoma State University, recommends moving 3-Dimensional cubes parallel to each other and connecting them with four lines. Because humans actually perceive the 3-Dimensional world through a 2-Dimensional lens with the aid of shadows, hues, and light, Segermen posits that we can alter our perception of the hypercube by casting shadows through stereographic projection–a method that allows us to see all sides of the hypercube in a 3-Dimensional map. Perhaps, to reconcile the Space Stone’s existence within the Tesseract with current dimensional understanding, we can attribute its allure and mystery to our difficulty in conceptualizing the existence of measure polytopes and various 4-Dimensional objects. But that would be quite boring, and do little to ease the development of my 2 a.m. enthrallment.

I propose a two-step plan for reconciliation. First, transforming the Space Stone into a portion of a macro-object. Some theories postulate that we live in a hyperspherical galaxy, and our universe is the hypersurface of the hypersphere. In 1937, Paul Dirac introduced the notion of the Hypersphere World-Universe Model (WUM) which he intended to be a continuation of Classical Physics, transforming the current perception of the universe and presenting three new cosmic parameters: gravitational, concentration of intergalactic plasma, and the minimum energy of photons. While Dirac’s theorems focus more on the content of the hyperspherical galaxy and were hypothesized in 1937, they have since been experimentally confirmed. Inspired by Dirac, astrophysicists Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez coined the term macro-objects. They predicted that these macro-objects had cores made up of DM (dark matter) particles and baryonic matter. The existence of supermassive macro-objects is now commonly accepted in physics, but the composition of the core of macro-objects is still speculated. David M. Jacobs, Glenn D. Starkman, and Bryan W. Lynn, astrophysics researchers from Case Western University, University College London, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, respectively, theorize that DM-composed particles could have been assembled out of quarks and leptons (Standard Model particles) in the early Universe. 

Suppose the Space Stone gains its evocative power from being a chunk of a macro-object cut out of “space,” assuming that space is 4-Dimensional or more. Additionally, let us weigh the possibility of the Space Stone originating from macro-objects existing in the early Universe. Our new origin story allows the existence of the Tesseract within the Marvel Universe, as long as the Tesseract is a divine storage facility for the Space Stone, and both objects hail from the quarks and leptons of the Standard Model. The most significant limitation of this proposal is that any object could follow the rubric of being cut out of space and claim to be a hyper-version of that object. But the exploration of that is beyond the scope of my proposal…

Since we have contrived the Space Stone and thereby, the Tesseract, into a scientifically acceptable format, we can move onto phase two: restarting the cycle. Placing the Tesseract back into the hands of Odin and enjoying a large popcorn while we marvel (see what I did there) over the fact that we have single-handedly created an alternative to Marvel’s elusive Phase 4.