A Brain That Can Visualize Higher Dimensions

[SaxonViolence]

Friends,

 

Is it conceivable that the human brain could be genetically engineered so that people could mentally visualize higher dimensions?

 

I would imagine that Riemann's Conjecture might fall fairly quickly, if mathematicians could clearly picture the complex functions on a single 4-D graph—just for instance.

 

But mainly, I like to imagine having such an ability, because being able to create and see brightly colored N-Spheres and 4 and 5 dimensional Archimedean solids—and so on—would be incredibly beautiful.

 

I imagine that the more dimensions, the harder it would be to visualize. I have no great hope of enabling the brain to visualize 144 Dimensions.

 

Having said that, is there a logical reason to think—that if we could do it at all—that a certain number of dimensions would be a reasonable upper limit to what is achievable? 5-D? 7-D? 17-D?

 

There should be some way to mathematically figure out how much the demands on the computational power of the brain would increase with each dimension.

 

…..Saxon Violence

 

 

[GAHD]

This guy has a way for you.

[Vmedvil2]

This guy has a way for you.

 

I gotta say GAHD I watched this video and really liked it and how it explains higher dimensions, that is a good one.

 

Friends,

 

Is it conceivable that the human brain could be genetically engineered so that people could mentally visualize higher dimensions?

 

I would imagine that Riemann's Conjecture might fall fairly quickly, if mathematicians could clearly picture the complex functions on a single 4-D graph—just for instance.

 

But mainly, I like to imagine having such an ability, because being able to create and see brightly colored N-Spheres and 4 and 5 dimensional Archimedean solids—and so on—would be incredibly beautiful.

 

I imagine that the more dimensions, the harder it would be to visualize. I have no great hope of enabling the brain to visualize 144 Dimensions.

 

Having said that, is there a logical reason to think—that if we could do it at all—that a certain number of dimensions would be a reasonable upper limit to what is achievable? 5-D? 7-D? 17-D?

 

There should be some way to mathematically figure out how much the demands on the computational power of the brain would increase with each dimension.

 

…..Saxon Violence

 

Secondly, I don't think genetic engineering works that way you cannot just program information into humans, we for instance could raise the IQ or Ability to remember things into a human's DNA but we could not for instance give him the ability to visualize things better.

[DanielBoyd]

I definitely don;t think that the brain can be genetically modified to be able to visualize higher dimensions... because genetics does not determine it's functions in this way. Instead, they are the result (in any case is sensory functions) of interactions with the outside world. It is trained to perceive a 3D world because we live in one, and is therefore capable of perceiving 3D. Just like if you give someone upside-down glasses their brain 'corrects' this by inverting its perception after a while, it may be possible to get the brain to perceive 4D if it was constantly fed with 4D information. The question, of course, is how you could possibly do this, since we don't live in a 4D world! One interesting possibility would be to spend a period of time in a  virtual (visual) 4D world. This would presumably be severely disorienting at first, just as the upside-down glasses are, but possibly the brain would adapt to the new reality after a few days/weeks/months/years. Any volunteers?

[Dubbelosix]

I definitely don;t think that the brain can be genetically modified to be able to visualize higher dimensions... because genetics does not determine it's functions in this way. Instead, they are the result (in any case is sensory functions) of interactions with the outside world. It is trained to perceive a 3D world because we live in one, and is therefore capable of perceiving 3D. Just like if you give someone upside-down glasses their brain 'corrects' this by inverting its perception after a while, it may be possible to get the brain to perceive 4D if it was constantly fed with 4D information. The question, of course, is how you could possibly do this, since we don't live in a 4D world! One interesting possibility would be to spend a period of time in a  virtual (visual) 4D world. This would presumably be severely disorienting at first, just as the upside-down glasses are, but possibly the brain would adapt to the new reality after a few days/weeks/months/years. Any volunteers?

 

Under what model? See in string theory, dimensions are curled up so small not even our best instruments can detect them. We only see a small portion of the visible spectrum of light, so in what way could a brain not be modified?

 

A good example is that technology can be modified not to show visible to the human eye, and yet that does not mean it is not there... just some food for thought.

[DanielBoyd]

Under what model? See in string theory, dimensions are curled up so small not even our best instruments can detect them. We only see a small portion of the visible spectrum of light, so in what way could a brain not be modified?

 

A good example is that technology can be modified not to show visible to the human eye, and yet that does not mean it is not there... just some food for thought.

 

I've got nothing that fancy in mind. More like the experiments they did bringing up kittens in an environment with only vertical lines. Their poor brains therefore thought that was all that existed in the world and didn't learn to see horizontals.

 

If you were to equip a baby from birth with VR goggles that added a fourth spacial dimension of some sort, then I expect its brain would adapt to percieve the world in visual 4D. Whether that would be an ethical experiment is a different matter. 

 

But trying to get the brain to percieve more than three dimensions while it exists in a 3D world? That doesn't seem plausible .