Time Cube

Time Cube
	The layout and writing style of the Time Cube website
Type of site	Personal web page and conspiracy blog
Created by	Otis Eugene "Gene" Ray
Commercial	No
Launched	1997; 28 years ago
Current status	Inactive

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]

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

Website

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

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

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]

In popular culture

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

^ 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

^ ^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.
^ "Timecube". Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Retrieved June 25, 2016.
^ ^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.
^ ^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.
^ ^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.
^ 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."
^ "Timecube.com Picture". Archived from the original on August 18, 2015. Retrieved September 14, 2014.
^ "IAP 2002 Activity: Time Cube Lecture / Debate". Retrieved April 5, 2007.
^ "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.
^ 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.
^ "VIDEO – Brett Hanover". www.bretthanover.com. Retrieved July 12, 2023.
^ "Above God". Archived from the original on November 9, 2014.
^ 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.
^ 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.
^ Alestorm – To the End of the World, retrieved February 17, 2024