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flatlinelast Saturday at 4:31 AM4 repliesview on HN

The conclusion I’ve come to from works like Flatland, 4D toys, etc., is that we simply don’t have the neural circuitry to grasp anything beyond three dimensions. We can reason about them, we can make inferences about the whole from partial understanding, but we cannot truly grasp more than three, or perhaps only for an instant of forced conceptualization using heuristics like you mentioned. Even three is a stretch, our minds have adapted to build a three dimensional realm from something like a 2.5 dimensional field of combined visual, tactile, and auditory stimuli. I suspect 3D reasoning itself is a huge adaptive trait compared to most other animals.


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Laremerelast Saturday at 12:31 PM

I've managed to visualize a Klein bottle in 4d. I easily visualize 3d objects. However I can't really do color - I startled myself recently when I briefly saw red. On that aphantasia test with an apple, I can hold it's 3d shape, but no surface texture or color.

People seem to have surprisingly different internal experiences. I don't know how common 4d visualization is, and I suspect even those capable require exposure to the concepts and practice. However I do think it possible.

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Gooblebrailast Saturday at 12:29 PM

I've been waiting for Miegakure for ages

sorokodlast Saturday at 10:19 AM

At least for 4D, would you not consider 3D-over-time as a four dimensional model? Doesn't watching the evolution as seen here allows for building up an intuition ?

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cantor_S_druglast Saturday at 6:02 AM

Do you think an AI can learn this intuition by training it in similar environment?

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