Abstract
It is conjectured that strongly coupled, spatially
noncommutative 
= 4 Yang-Mills theory has a dual description as a
weakly coupled open string theory in a near critical electric field,
and that this dual theory is fully decoupled from closed
strings. Evidence for this conjecture is given by the absence of
physical closed string poles in the non-planar one-loop open string
diagram. The open string theory can be viewed as living in a geometry
in which space and time coordinates do not commute.