Re: So these papers "leak"??
I don't know, but the dimensional thing is not really magic sauce to explain stuff (much as quantum mechanics is not magic sauce for consciousness)
I remember vaguely that 4 dimensions (not 3) is a magic number as some very special properties become apparent in topology or quantum field theory or both, can't remember... but unless there is strong evidence, 4 it shall remain.
This doesn't preclude one from declaring other degrees of freedom (e.g. energy) as a dimension, but you cannot actually travel along those.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
