A potential cure to the projection plane issue

[Hiato]

Hello,

First, yep, this is a first post. Secondly, I have been reading and thinking, and this is what I have understood. So far as I can tell, the fundamental issue with moving towards perceiving any form of fourth dimensionality on any level lies in the fact that eyes, as we know them, can only receive information on a 2D level. That is, we can easily observe all the points of a two dimensional object simultaneously, yet fail to do so for a three dimensional object due to the nature of light, and well, concrete ant its opaque friends.

The way I see it ( ) is that "visible light", as part of the EM spectrum is a phenomenon used only by 2-3 dimensional beings. 1D needs no such EM feedback on its environment and 2D needs only rudimentary details. 3D makes full use of this particular range of wavelengths while in any higher dimension it becomes pretty useless once more, much like a using a precise laser to illuminate a winding corridor. Thus, the fairly obvious solution to me is that, all other factors permitting, 4D beings would see on much higher or lower frequencies than we do, which would easily be capable of penetrating nearly all forms of matter and being refracted diffidently depending on the nature of the material.

What does this matter you may be asking. Well, I see a huge potential. A detector for, say, gamma rays, is by definition a 3D object. Then, combine multiple layers of it so as to detect multiple frequencies and magnitudes of various rays and presto - a 3D eye. Such technology is already, essentially, in use in, for example, border crossings to scan trucks: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/VACIS_Gamma-ray_Image_with_stowaways.GIF or http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Mobile_VACIS_Gamma-ray_Image.jpeg. All we need to do is feed this information directly into the human mind (without projection onto a medium, which will chop off 1 dimension) and then we can perceive in 3D, for at least most objects - see all points simultaneously due to time delays, doppler, densities etc.

Yes/no/maybe? To me, even the very notion that something like this can be done is rather exciting.

Hiato

[Keiji]

Hello, First, yep, this is a first post.

Welcome to the forum! Though, as you can see, it's rather inactive...

Secondly, I have been reading and thinking, and this is what I have understood. So far as I can tell, the fundamental issue with moving towards perceiving any form of fourth dimensionality on any level lies in the fact that eyes, as we know them, can only receive information on a 2D level. That is, we can easily observe all the points of a two dimensional object simultaneously, yet fail to do so for a three dimensional object due to the nature of light, and well, concrete ant its opaque friends.

Yes, this is correct.

The way I see it ( ) is that "visible light", as part of the EM spectrum is a phenomenon used only by 2-3 dimensional beings. 1D needs no such EM feedback on its environment and 2D needs only rudimentary details. 3D makes full use of this particular range of wavelengths while in any higher dimension it becomes pretty useless once more, much like a using a precise laser to illuminate a winding corridor. Thus, the fairly obvious solution to me is that, all other factors permitting, 4D beings would see on much higher or lower frequencies than we do, which would easily be capable of penetrating nearly all forms of matter and being refracted diffidently depending on the nature of the material.

There's no reason why 4D beings would see lower or higher frequencies than we do. There's no reason why they'd see similar frequencies either. The fact that gamma and X rays can see through things in 3D has no relation to their potential use in 4D, because 4D beings would be able to see all points in a 3D object at once without the light having to go through matter.

More importantly, if you are simply talking about 3D beings being able to see all points in a 3D object simultaneously, just seeing through stuff does not achieve this goal. The only way humans would be able to see more than two dimensions at once would be for them to have some kind of direct connection with their brain in place of the eye, because the retina is 2D. Though re-reading the last paragraph of your post, you seem to be making this exact point, but this is certainly impossible with current technology. It would be another step on the line to virtual reality.