玄奘人文學報【第二期】
民國 93 年 2 月
頁 1-13
“Proving Human Stupidity”:
Time Cube, Gnosis, and the Challenge of
Radical Cosmology
Bei Dawei
Abstract
Nature’s Harmonic Time Cube Creation Principle (“Time Cube”) is the
discovery of that complex and unique American thinker, Dr. Gene Ray, Cubic.
His claim to have “squared the circle and cubed earth’s sphere” through a
higher order of mathematical reasoning, curiously recalls previous moments of
cosmological paradigm shift which were similarly accompanied by a
compelling sense of renewed salvific wisdom, or gnosis, in opposition to a
previous aeon of ignorance and servitude. At the same time, Time Cube
represents a radical reordering of traditional hierarchies of knowledge and
scholarship, as well as an excellent example of what amounts to a formidable
contemporary wave of internet-based cosmological populism. We, Dr. Ray
charges, were “educated stupid.”
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玄奘人文學報【第二期】
驗證人類愚蠢：時光立方體，靈知學及
極端的宇宙論挑戰
*
貝大衛
《摘要》
自然和諧的時光立體創造原則是由思想複雜而特異的美國思想家金瑞博
士「立方學者」（Dr. Gene Ray, Cubic）發現，他宣稱透過高階的數學原
理，可在圓形中取得正方形，可在球體中獲得立方體，這種論點極富興味
地讓人想起從前宇宙論的變革，相當類似救贖智慧被迫更新的觀點（又稱
為靈知論），以對照出從前的矇眛時期及奴隸時期。同時；時光立體代表
一種傳統知識及學術階級的劇烈重置，如同網路發達後宇宙知識普及化是
當代潮流的最佳典範。金瑞博士指摘我們是受了教育的傻子。
*
貝大衛 玄奘人文社會學院外文系助理教授
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“Proving Human Stupidity”: Time Cube, Gnosis, and the Challenge of Radical Cosmology
No genius has known math to achieve cubic 無一天才
可知數學可成立方體
Nonsense is nonsense, but the study of nonsense is scholarship.
–attributed to Gershom Scholem
Prof. Scholem’s legendary dictum, while intended as an apologia for Kabbalistic
studies, may also serve as an indictment of an education system which can think of no
better justification for its varied and often arbitrary interests. Such is the thrust of the
social critique, borne of a unique cosmological vision, of Dr. Gene Ray, Cubic, whose
websites (chiefly timecube.com, founded 1997) set forth what he views as the most
important discovery ever made—namely that of Nature’s Harmonic Time Cube
Creation Principle (“Time Cube”).
Dr. Ray (born 1927) is a native and current resident of Georgia (USA). In
addition to his cosmological interests he is an electrician, the author of a book on
marbles, and an inventor with several fishing-related patents. Some twenty years ago
he achieved what he describes as “the greatest social and scientific discovery of
humanity,” to which he has devoted the remainder of his life. “Being nearly 74,” he
adds, “I am tired and need others to share this divine burden” (Mega-Team interview).
Unfortunately his family members “do not want to know what I know” (Satanosphere
interview).
Ray accordingly awarded himself the “Doctorate of Cubicism,” reasoning that
educators—ignorant of the Time Cube principle—have no right to bestow this most
prestigious honor upon the man whom he regards as the wisest human ever. He
laments that his wisdom “…so antiquates known knowledge, that a psychiatrist
examining my behavior…knows no other course than to judge me schizophrenic.”
This is hardly fair, for as he explains, “I am wiser than any god or scientist, for I have
squared the circle and cubed earth’s sphere…”
“See for yourself the absolute proof,” Dr. Ray urges.
God is cornered as a queer 上帝被框限如同性戀
Ray often declares that he is “above God” (his other main URL being
abovegod.com)—by which he means that he is wiser than the deity described by
Judeo-Christian tradition, in whom he completely disbelieves. This is a good place to
begin our understanding of the Time Cube worldview.
In a 2002 interview for Phoenix Online, Ray was asked, “How does Time Cube
disprove God?” Ray replied,
The Bible said God created Earth on the first day. I have proof of four
different days in one day.
Where the God of the Genesis story experiences one day at a time, Ray sees four
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玄奘人文學報【第二期】
simultaneous days. What the biblical authors failed to realize was that “in the same 24
hours [the Earth receives 24 hours] of light, 24 hours of darkness, 24 hours of
sundown, and 24 hours of sunup…”
If earth stood still, it would have mid-day, mid-night, sunup, and sundown as
four corners. Each rotation of the earth has four mid-days, four mid-nights,
four sunups, and four sundowns.
Thus, Ray concludes, “there are four simultaneous 24-hour days within a single
rotation of the Earth.”
Ray’s illustration from timecube.com is helpful:
“Just as the clock face has 4 quarter corners,” Ray explains, “an Earth
hemisphere has 4 quadrant corners. Those 4 different corners equate to 4 different
Worlds, with each having its own separate day, own separate year, and a separate
human race.” This recognition, Ray says,
…empowers me above all 1-day gods and educated stupid scientists. I will
wager $10,000.00 on it.
To date, no one has yet succeeded in winning Ray’s USD 10,000 by disproving the
Time Cube principle to his satisfaction.
A (presumably dyslexic) critic named “Yar Eneg,” who signed a petition
supporting Time Cube, nevertheless criticized Ray’s fourfold model with an appeal to
accept a rival one, the “Time Isocohedron.”
It has twenty sides and twelve points and this proves that there is a 7
cornered room that you live in and you are stupid and evil for not knowing
that there is 11 days in one 24 hour rotation of the earth. Stop clothes
murdering your children! We must roam naked! [Time Cube petition, no.
703]
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“Proving Human Stupidity”: Time Cube, Gnosis, and the Challenge of Radical Cosmology
The implicit criticism, which others have made as well, is that Ray’s fourfold division
is in fact arbitrary. Defending Ray, Time Cube Central responds (in the “proof”
section of their website) that
We understand a “day” as being a 24 hour rotation of Earth from point to
point. Let’s say noon to noon. But what happens if we alter our point of
reference? That’s what Dr. Ray did. True, there could be infinite divisions.
But there can only be four days. Let me explain.
Imagine a pie your mom baked. The first thing you’d do is cut it in half.
Why? Because two is the easiest
division. Since the slice results in two
equal parts, it’s safe to assume the pie
was divided along its center… Now
you cut the pie again into further equal
divisions. Your slice would be 90
degrees (perpendicular) to your first
slice, thereby dividing the pie into four
equal pieces.
A further complication arises from the tilt of the
Earth’s axis, which according to Ray
“ represents an imperfection upon which life is
based” [Mega-Team interview], but let us pass
this over for now.
The Three Equators 三個赤道
What does Ray mean by the startling notion of four distinct human races
occupying separate worlds, each at one of the corners of the earth? In brief,
Sunup represents Indian Race. Midday represents White Race. Sundown
represents Asian Race. Midnight represents Black Race.
Thus, each of the major races enjoys its own ideal location on the globe.
Although he denies being a racist, Ray opposes mixing the races together. “Racial
integration,” he says, “equals racial slop.”
Why is this? Ray’s justification involves the related doctrines of the Two Sex
Poles and the Three Equators. First, the Three Equators. We should understand
…that a prime meridian does not just pass through the Greenwich point, but
it also passes as a great circle through both poles, crossing the equator at 2
opposite points, dividing Earth into two halves of light and darkness, each
with its own 24 hour rotation—in a single rotation of Earth. You should
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玄奘人文學報【第二期】
know that harmonic symmetry demands a second great circle meridian to
create sunup and sundown corner quadrants.
As for the two Sex Poles,
All creation on Earth exists between the two opposite poles, and if unified,
would cancel and cease to exist. Humans exist only as opposites—with a
zero value, for if unified, male and female would counter each other and
cease to exist.
The reader may be wondering why the two Sex Poles are not counted together
with the four corners, for a total of six nodes marking the points where the Three
Equators intersect. In the Mega-Team interview Ray is asked,
JB3 In that same diagram about equators, the middle figure shows the
earth with three equators and four corners. I notice that you have drawn
corners along the middle of the sphere where two of the equators meet, but
none at the North and South poles where other equators meet. Why not?
GR Travel from pole to pole in zero Time. Time is not vertical, but of a
4-corner rotational principle. No Time occurs during vertical travel except
for the horizonal rotational Time that occurs while traveling north and south.
Earth rotates in 4 differently configured directions at the same Time - toward
midnight, toward sunup, toward midday and toward sundown.
Dmitry Brant’s criticisms makes much the same point in a different way, in the first of
his multipoint criticisms:
Since when does a cube have four corners? A cube has 8 corners, 6 faces,
and 12 edges. A cube doesn’t have 4 of anything! However, Gene Ray might
be referring to “corner” as in the corner of a room. But for that to be
effective, we would need to assign a “top” and a “bottom” face to each cube
we encounter, which would not be practical.
We can assume that Ray’s answer would be the same: that the four “corner” nodes are
distinguished on a sphere, because they (and not the poles) mark the direction in
which time flows (i.e. the direction of the earth’s rotation).
According to Ray, this cosmological model has salvific value: “If the four racial
components of two sex pole hemispheres agreed to the cubing of the sphere as a
spiritual unity,” he writes, “heavenly music of cubed sphere could be audible on earth
simultaneously to every human ear, not discord, but harmony” (abovegod.com) .
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“Proving Human Stupidity”: Time Cube, Gnosis, and the Challenge of Radical Cosmology
Until Word is cornered, all math is fiction 語言受侷限
時，數學宛如虛構
Ray expresses not only considerable skepticism in the ability of language to
adequately express cosmological truths, but vehemently condemns the reduction of
such truths to mere words. “You word-murder your children,” he writes in his website.
In the Mega-Team interview he further explains that
GR: Human labels are counterfeit and fictitious. Words were initially created
represent values to serve public barter. Words equate to a Trojan Horse today.
Invented Word can be applied to imply that god is actually a name for satan.
Human word is neither deed nor product, but a counterfeit representation of
value. Humans are worshippers of fictitious word.
And this from the Phoenix Online interview:
The nation of America is a fictitious nation, because its based on Word. All
Word is counterfeit and fictitious. Word is a more efficient form of mind
enslavement than the whip or shackle. If you get rid of Word, everybody can
do independent thinking.
The irony, of course, being that one must resort to words in order to
communicate the Time Cube philosophy. This raises the disturbing possibility that
Ray’s words, seemingly scientific and precise, do not necessarily mean what we take
them to mean, since the underlying truth is indescribable.
After sketching the alternatives that either Ray’s theories are literally true, or
that Ray is crazy, Brant speculates about an intriguing third possibility—namely that
The Time Cube is really an elaborate metaphor that Gene Ray created to
describe something for which he can’t find other words. After all, he does
keep referring to his principle as “ineffable.” Therefore, trying to eff about it
would prove useless, as the web page clearly shows.
A Jungian reading would see the Time Cube as a symbol of integration, i.e. the
attempt on the part of Ray’s psyche to achieve wholeness through the harmonious
unification of opposites. The “squared circle” is a classic Jungian description of a
mandala image, as is the progression from duality to quaternity to multiplicity. Even
Ray’s insistence in the absolutely scientific, mathematical nature of his conclusions
would meet with Jung’s approval, given that (as with alchemy) the assumption that
one’s belief’s are objectively true, helps prevent the conscious mind from tampering
with their expression. One who understood the project to be essentially speculative or
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玄奘人文學報【第二期】
subjective in nature could not very well envision it as operating independently of the
self, which is the prerequisite for the unconscious mind (being not of the self) to
project itself onto these workings.
This reading accords well with Ray’s tendency to extend the fourfold principle
to seemingly unrelated areas of life: the four stages of the human life-cycle, for
example, or the four “sides” of the human head. The Time Cube expresses itself
through such paradoxes as “A mother and baby are the same age” (since the mother
can only be a mother for as long as there is a baby).
Brant has a less charitable interpretation of the psychological significance of the
Time Cube. Speculating that Ray may have been inspired by his keychain—a small
Earth globe set within a plastic cube—Brant surmises that
His brain entered a feedback loop so powerful that it caused him to generate
a mile-long web page, generalizing the cubical principle to all aspects of
existence. And, like any parasitic meme, he protects his mind-numbingly
skewed logic with all his strength.
In any case, words are not only of psychological or intellectual moment; they
constitute articulations of power, as Ray well recognizes. At its heart lies a call to
analysis—and action:
Since I have informed you of Nature’s Harmonic Time Cube Four-Day
Creation Principle, your stupidity is no longer the issue. For now, the issue is
just how evil you are for ignoring Life’s Highest Order; and just how long
the Time Cube will allow you to plunder the Earth before inflicting hell upon
you.
Thus Ray transcends the purely transcendental realm of speculative psychology, and
embraces the social level of praxis which Marxism celebrates.
Words, though fictive, can be used either for good or evil—for communicating
the Time Cube philosophy, however clumsily, or for denying and suppressing the
same. Interestingly, Ray tends to conflate stupidity with evil, thereby indicating the
essentially Gnostic nature of his enterprise. “Your professors are stupid evil liars, and
fear the Time Cube truth.”
You may be academically retarded 你有可能學術低
能
It seems that the scholarly community has avoided giving Ray’s discoveries a
hearing. “Academic free speech is a damn lie,” Ray observes. “Try to discuss and
debate Nature’s Time Cube and your evil teachers will not allow you.” Dubbing
educators “evil word gods,” he accuses them of suppressing the truth of the Time
Cube out of selfish interests. The universities, he says, “fear my wisdom will expose
and indict the pedant hirelings as betrayers of dumb-ass students.”
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“Proving Human Stupidity”: Time Cube, Gnosis, and the Challenge of Radical Cosmology
After challenges to several universities, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and
the St. Petersburg [Florida] Times went unanswered, Ray finally received an
invitation to lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he
spoke to a crowd of several hundred mysteriously grinning students.
Ray has had more success at the popular level represented most vividly by the
internet. Already Time Cube thought has inspired the theology behind the Church of
the Holy Time Cube in Niles, Michigan; two games (a card game and a role-playing
game); and several musical compositions as well as the name of a band.
An ongoing online petition drive addressed to “all academic and social
institutions” resolves that “Time Cube debate should be mandated in all academic and
social institutions!＂To date the signature count reads 738 , of which the following
comments seem fairly representative:
736. Robin
723.
Lauren
Drexler,(914)980-5143
Hello, Batman. I hate you, Batman. You
called me a poophead.
M. call me boys. Im open for anything. 17,
hot, give great head.
Despite the unpromising nature of such discourse, the internet has hosted a
surprisingly broad range of critique—both positive and negative—of Ray’s theories,
as the extracts cited in this article may reveal. That the Time Cube should have its
hearing in a popular rather than elitist context is quite appropriate given the
anti-authoritarian nature of Ray’s critique.
All sorts of projects, both solitary and communal, thrive on the internet. Indeed,
numerous subjects or approaches exist which could have received a hearing nowhere
else, except perhaps the alternative press. These range from discussion of John Titor,
who claimed to be a time traveler from our future (johntitor.com); to the cheerfully
fake religion of J.R. “Bob” Dobbs (subgenius.com); to the numerous groups devoted
to critiquing one another’s flatulence. The latter are at least as numerous as sites
devoted to the discussion of Derrida; a cynic might wonder whether the one group of
eruptions is really of any more significance than the other.
On one hand, readers can readily discern likely reasons why certain material
would be unwelcome in mainstream mass media as well as academia. On the other
hand, these sites represent the labor and concerns of the masses. Should we ignore
these in favor of purely elite preferences? Who is to say what art, what literature,
what science deserves our attention and respect? Given that publishing, education,
and scientific research have become industries with their own interests distinct from
those of ordinary people, let alone some idealized purpose; and given that ours is an
age of decentralization of authority and the deconstruction of canons, should we not
widen our gaze to include these formerly unnoticed intellectual forms?
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玄奘人文學報【第二期】
Cosmology and salvation
宇宙論與拯救
The notion that our prevailing worldview is false, and that accurate
cosmological knowledge is salvific in nature, has a number of precedents in ancient
Mediterranean and Indic religions as well as contemporary popular culture. These are
often conflated under the heading of “gnosticism” or “gnosis,” though the legitimacy
of the category has recently been questioned (Williams 1999).
A well-known recent iteration of this theme was the Matrix film series, whose
main character discovers that the world around him is really a computer-generated
illusion. In his main website Ray expresses approval of at least the first movie.
Unfortunately he does not appear to have seen either Cube (1997) or its sequel Cube 2:
Hypercube (2002), other “gnostic” films which seem likely to appeal to him. The plot
to both films bring together a seemingly random assortment of humanity, who wake
up to find themselves trapped in a cube-like prison (representing the world, it seems
to me). Each possesses special abilities which, when pooled together, may or may not
be sufficient to decipher the nature of the cube—there are mathematical symbols
along its walls—and escape to an unknown exterior.
Since few people actually believe in the premise of the Matrix movies, their
challenge to our personal psychic stability is not so great. However, revolutions in the
human understanding of cosmology do occur from time to time, and often powerfully
affect us by giving us the impression that the universe has been destroyed and created
anew, as it were.
David Ulansey (1991) writes that in the ancient world, Hipparchus’ discovery of
the precession of the equinoxes led to a similar conceptual upheaval. Today we
understand the phenomenon of precession to be caused by a wobble in the earth’s axis.
However, from the geocentric perspective of the second century BC, it suggested the
existence of some heretofore unrevealed god whose domain lay outside the known
universe, and who was therefore capable of shifting the entire sphere of the heavens
on its axis. The precise identity of this god varied from mystery-religion to
mystery-religion. Among these were numbered not only the Roman Mithraism of
Ulansey’s title but also early Christianity, which emphasized the role of Christ as
kosmokrator (ruler of the cosmos).
The crucial connection is that those with sufficient mathematical and
astronomical knowledge, were faced with a major revision in the received cosmology.
Suddenly, with the imperfections of the previous system laid bare, the universe
appeared vaster than before. Not only new cosmology but a new consciousness was
required, for humanity had transcended its old gods, the rulers of the planetary
spheres. In this context Mithraism and then Christianity arose to become new
trans-imperial symbolic systems for the Roman Empire. Prof. Ulansey privately
speculates that our own globalizing civilization may witness some analogous
emergence, possibly over the internet.
If so, then perhaps Time Cube will prove to be that new revelation which the
world has been awaiting. Ray, it seems, has gone through an experience of
cosmological upheaval similar to those of Hipparchus and his followers, though on a
personal level rather than in tandem with a group of intellectual peers (as anyone with
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“Proving Human Stupidity”: Time Cube, Gnosis, and the Challenge of Radical Cosmology
sufficient astronomical knowledge would have grasped the significance of
Hipparchus).
Ray’s theory of the Three Equators recalls the ancient world’s fascination with
the intersection between the celestial equator and the plane of the ecliptic, the
intersections of which mark the equinoxes. (In Christianity these became the symbol
of the cross, which was often surrounded by the astrological animal-symbols for the
four evangelists / four angels from Ezekiel.) Missing from Time Cube, however, is
any sense of historical progression, as in the precession of the equinoxes (unless we
interpret these as really cyclical, on a grand scale).
Shapes are often held to possess salvific value. The Christian cross, the
Pythagorean triangle, Hindu and Buddhist mandalas, the Satanic trapezoid, and the
Gurdjieffian enneagram are all said to evoke spiritual realities. Whether these are held
to represent cosmological structures, psycho-spiritual states, or both, they do seem to
touch something basic within human consciousness—the same level of consciousness
that allows us to distinguish day from night, or the faces of our mothers from among
all others. Imagine the personal effect of a paradoxical discovery to the effect that day
was really night, for example, or that a mother and her child are the same age. Add to
this the compelling sense of personal responsibility which comes from being in a
position to lead others to the truth, coupled with the likelihood of suppression by the
authorities, and we are left with a figure like Copernicus or Galileo—or Giordano
Bruno.
Paradoxically, the discovery that one is “stupid” is actually the beginning of
wisdom. Rather than a cynical, pessimistic evaluation of the limits of human potential,
this insight opens doors to future spiritual evolution, which would otherwise have
remained blocked. While accusations of stupidity on the part of others do come across
as a protest, these too really constitute secret celebrations of a higher wisdom which
lies implicit within the rejection of foolishness. They can also be evangelical, a means
of reaching out to others in order to lead them to freedom, bodhisattva-like.
At times Dr. Ray waxes lyrical, like a gnostic psalmist, in his efforts to pierce
through to our understanding. It seems right to give him the last word:
YOU are the lowest form.
YOU can’t procreate alone.
YOU destroyed the village.
YOU destroyed the family.
YOU destroyed naturalism.
YOU don’t know the Truth.
YOU pitiful mindless fools,
YOU are educated stupid.
YOU worship cubeless word.
YOU are your own poison.
YOU create your own hell.
YOU must seek Time Cube.
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Bibliography / Net-iography 參考書目及網路資料
Brant, Dmitry. “On Gene Ray and Timecube: A rare peek into the genius that is Gene
Ray.” http://dmitrybrant.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=3/
A thoughtful critique, with itemized objections.
James, Bryan (ed.). Time Cube Central. http://www.great-debate.com/id35.htm
Apparently a believer-run site, with many links.
Duffy, Kate. “Truth is Cubic?” Phoenix Online. Sept. 19, 2002.
http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/org/phoenix/2002/2002-09-19/living/12178.php
Interview with Gene Ray.
“Gene Ray” in Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Ray
Biographical entry.
Kevan. “The Time Cube Deck.” Dvorak. Sept. 2, 2002.
http://www.dvorakgame.co.uk/cardlist.cgi?timecube
Online card game spoofing Time Cube.
Matt, “Time Cube: A Gene Ray Interview.” Satanosphere.
July 28, 2001
http://www.satanosphere.com/story/2001/7/28/152548/138
Mega-Team, “The TimeCube.” http://bopeton.tripod.com/timecube.html
Another interview with Gene Ray. The interviewer is Jeffton Bopeton III;
several others comment.
Sartin, Jason. “Gene Ray, Cubic.”
Alleee
http://www.insolitology.com/topten/generay.htm
12
and
Franc’s
Insolitology.
“Proving Human Stupidity”: Time Cube, Gnosis, and the Challenge of Radical Cosmology
Critique by a connoisseur of crank theories. Includes lyrics to the
unforgettable rap song, “Niggaz Be Fearin’ the Time Cube Truth.”
“Timecube!!!”
Middle
http://atrocities.primaryerror.net/timecube.html
Finger
Evolution.
Review of a Time Cube role-playing game
Ulansey, David. The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries: Cosmology and Salvation In
the Ancient World. Oxford UP, 1991.
Williams, Michael Allen. Rethinking “Gnosticism”: An Argument for Dismantling a
Dubious Category. Princeton UP, 1999.
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