Wikipedia

Time Cube

Not to be confused with Times Square.

Time Cube was a pseudoscientific personal web page set up in 1997 by Otis Eugene "Gene" Ray.[3] 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.[4] Ray described himself as the "wisest man on earth"[3] 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.[5]

Time Cube
The layout and writing style of the Time Cube website
Type of site
Personal web page and conspiracy blog
Created byOtis Eugene "Gene" Ray
CommercialNo
Launched1997; 27 years ago (1997)
Current statusInactive[a]

According to Find a Grave, Ray died on 18 March 2015, and the Time Cube website registration expired in August 2015.[1]

Website

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The Time Cube website did not have a home page.[3] 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.[6]

Adi Robertson of The Verge commented that Ray's theory of time is "an incredibly confusing one peppered with racism and homophobia".[1]

Time Cube concept

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Diagram illustrating an aspect of the Time Cube theory which Ray describes as "LIFE ENCOMPASSES A 4–16 CUBE PRINCIPLE"

Ray's personal model of reality, called "Time Cube", states that all of modern physics and education is wrong,[4] 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.[3][5]

The following quotation from the website illustrates the recurring theme:

When the Sun shines upon Earth, 2 – major Time points are created on opposite sides of Earth – known as Midday and Midnight. Where the 2 major Time forces join, synergy creates 2 new minor Time points we recognize as Sunup and Sundown. The 4-equidistant time points can be considered as Time Square imprinted upon the circle of Earth. In a single rotation of the Earth sphere, each Time corner point rotates through the other 3-corner Time points, thus creating 16 corners, 96 hours, and 4-simultaneous 24-hour Days within a single rotation of Earth – equated to a Higher Order of Life Time Cube.

Ray offered $1,000[7] or $10,000[5] to anyone who could prove his views wrong.

Reception

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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.[8] He repeated his $10,000 offer for professors to disprove his notions at the event; none attempted it.[5] John C. Dvorak wrote in PC Magazine that "Metasites that track crackpot sites often say this is the number one nutty site."[4] He also characterized the site's content as "endless blather."[4] 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."[9] 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.[10]

In 2005, Brett Hanover made Above God, a short documentary film about Ray and Time Cube.[11] The film was likely named after one of Ray's websites, which criticized the idea that God exists.[12] Hanover's film won awards for Best Documentary at the Indie Memphis Film Festival and the Atlanta Underground Film Festival.[13][14]

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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.[15]

Notes

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  1. ^ Ray's website domain names expired on August 24, 2015,[1] and Time Cube was last archived by the Wayback Machine on January 12, 2016 (January 10–14).[2]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Robertson, Adi (September 2, 2015). "Time Cube Is Gone". The Verge. Archived from the original on September 12, 2015. Retrieved February 15, 2016.
  2. ^ "Timecube". Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Retrieved June 25, 2016.
  3. ^ a b c d Hartwell, Mark (September 24, 2004). "Timecube.com: Where reality as we know it is a lie". The Maine Campus. Archived from the original on April 30, 2011. Retrieved July 25, 2010.
  4. ^ a b c d Dvorak, John C. (December 22, 2003). "Don't Call Them Crackpots". PC Magazine. Archived from the original on December 24, 2003. Retrieved August 20, 2018.
  5. ^ a b c d Duffy, Kate (September 19, 2002). "Truth Is Cubic?". The Phoenix. Swarthmore, Pennsylvania: Swarthmore College. Archived from the original on December 20, 2002. Retrieved July 25, 2010.
  6. ^ 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."
  7. ^ "Timecube.com Picture". Archived from the original on August 18, 2015. Retrieved September 14, 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  8. ^ "IAP 2002 Activity: Time Cube Lecture / Debate". Retrieved April 5, 2007.
  9. ^ "Time Cube. The TechTV Interview". Unscrewed with Martin Sargent. Season 1. Episode 15. June 18, 2003. TechTV. Sargent: Gene, how do you feel about being an Internet celebrity? I mean, you're huge on the web. Ray: Well, it's not a position I wanted, it's something I had to do. I'm not a writer or speaker, but no writer or speaker understands the Time Cube.
  10. ^ Cuneo, Joshua (April 22, 2005). "Oddball Time Cube theorist piques interest, elicits mixed response". Focus. Technique. Vol. 90, no. 31. Georgia Institute of Technology. pp. 11–14. hdl:1853/7877.
  11. ^ "VIDEO – Brett Hanover". www.bretthanover.com. Retrieved July 12, 2023.
  12. ^ "Above God". Archived from the original on November 9, 2014.
  13. ^ 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.
  14. ^ 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.
  15. ^ Alestorm – To the End of the World, retrieved February 17, 2024
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