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The Time Cube is a concept promoted by Gene Ray on his , postulating that time is somehow cubic or four-cornered. It is unclear how his ideas relate to any established concept of time. As there are no testable hypotheses or predictions associated with Time Cube doctrine, it is not scientifically falsifiable. According to the overwhelming majority of scientists, it therefore falls into the category of speculative belief with little relation to physics or science in general. For the most part, it is viewed as a (somewhat notorious) example of kookery.
Ray states that "4 is the supreme number of the universe" and frequently divides continuums into four classes, much like the Greeks did with the four humours and the four elements. These classes are called corners. There are several sets of corners mentioned:
According to Mr. Ray, the four corners of the earth divide the earth into four quadrants. For example, the Sunup quadrant is the portion of the earth in which days start closer to sunrise than to noon, midnight or sunset. It is unclear which quadrant places North of the Arctic Circle would fall into—seeing as the sun is up there continuously for six months out of the year. In every full rotation of Earth, each of the quadrants will experience a different style of day. One will start and end at night, one will start and end in the morning, one will start and end at midday, and one will start and end in the evening. It is unclear what event defines the "start" of the day. Presumably, Mr. Ray defines the start as the time at which the sun rises where he lives. Since the styles of the days are different, he says there are four different days in a 24-hour period. Each of these days is associated with one of the four races recognized by Mr. Ray: Midnight to midnight is the Black Race Day, sunup to sunup is the Indian Race Day, midday to midday is the White Race Day, and sundown to sundown is the Asian Race Day.
He says "infinite days is stupidity," showing that he believes that Earth is divided into precisely four classes of location, rather than a continuum of locations. He also calls the universal Greenwich Mean Time standard "bastardly queer" because it represents only one style of day. Anything associated with those who adhere to the standard is derisively referred to as "1-day," rather than "4-day."
He says that each corner of Earth experiences the four corners of the day. So that's a total of sixteen corners (or 16 "space times" as he says) experienced by humanity during every rotation of Earth.
He says that because the four corners of Earth each experience the year differently (one starts on midnight and ends on midnight, etc.), that there are also four years for every revolution of Earth around the Sun.
A human lifetime is divided into four corners. He says that, at any given point in time, a person is one-cornered (imperfect) instead of four-cornered (perfect) because their perspective is based on experience, and their experience is based on which stage of life they are in. A person's age is not on a continuum; instead, when a person advances to the next corner of their lifetime, their old corner dies.
The combination of the four corners of the day and the four stages of a person's life is referred to as the 4/16 Time Cube.
He also separates humanity into two "sex poles," male and female, and the four corners of complexion. Like other divisions into four, he allows no mixture of classes; in this case, he stands against interracial reproduction. He says: "Interracial marriage is stupid and evil for it creates a child not of either race, betraying the child and both the races."
According to him (on ), "If the 4 racial components of 2 sex pole hemispheres agreed to a cubing of the sphere as a spiritual unity, heavenly music of cubed sphere could be audible on Earth simultaneously to every human ear, not discord, but harmony." He doesn't believe that one race is supreme, but he does believe that they should remain separate and should stay in the geographical regions where they originated. "Cubing the sphere" apparently means separating the spherical world into four quadrants (the sides of the cube) and two poles (the top and bottom of the cube).
He also correlates the four races with the four corners of the day, based on the lightness or darkness in each:
He constantly excoriates words, usually in connection with teachers using them to teach contrary theories and to suppress the expression of time cube theory. He also appears to believe that words are inadequate to describe his theory as the following quote reflects: "Time Cube's ineffable Truth. 'Cubeless Word' is not Truth.".
Gene Ray has stated in an online radio inteview that the concept that -1 times -1 equals +1 is stupid and evil, because it is like saying that "A South American times a South American equals a North American."
Most readers find the Time Cube websites incoherent and mostly unintelligible and find it impossible to comprehend what Gene Ray is trying to say. Most think he is insane. In response, he asserts on the Time Cube website, "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."
On a factual level, critics maintain that it is unclear how Time Cube relates to any accepted concept of time (or even geometry), and that it is impossible to disprove it in a meaningful way due to the lack of testable hypotheses. Due to the general attitude that Time Cube is eccentric nonsense, Ray poses no threat to academia and the government, entities which he considers evil.
The Time Cube theory is based on the claimed supremacy of the number four, but some would claim that the connection between four and the cube is weak. The figure most often used to represent the number four is the square, a planar figure. If a solid is required to represent the number four, the most obvious candidate is the tetrahedron. There is a strong and obvious connection between four and the square, and another obvious connection between the square and the cube. But few see a particularly strong relationship between four and the cube.
Mr. Ray responds to this criticism by stating that the Time Cube rotates about an axis that passes through the center of one face and the center of the opposite face. This fact breaks the full symmetry of the cube and allows a basis for dividing its six faces into a group of two, each with a stationary center on the axis; and a group of four, each with a moving center not on the axis. He says that the group of 4 faces is like the 4 walls of a Cube-like room, and that the corners are where the walls intersect. This means that by "corners", he is referring to the vertical edges of the Cube (the edges parallel to the rotational axis). This nonstandard definition often causes confusion since a cube's "corners" are generally taken to be its 8 vertices.
Creditors of Time Cube doctrine admit that, without the rotational property, the connection between the cube and four is invalid. This seems to damage their view, seeing as most agree that the fact that the Earth is rotating is a contingent one.
Although Ray is generally viewed as a crank, he claims "many thousands" believe that he is really communicating the "Ineffable Cubic Truth of the Universe" and that he is a great thinker and wise. There is no registered organization with an official membership list to prove that he has followers. However, there is an demanding representation of the Time Cube doctrine in academic and social institutions that has over 790 signatures. Most signatures seem to have been added in jest. Included in the list of names are Abraham Lincoln, Osama bin Laden, Dick Cheney and even Gene Ray, to which the comment is affixed "Did I sign this yet?".
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