What would the experience be like for a human transported to 4 dimensions?

Our universe has 3 global spatial dimensions - that much I know. I am almost sure, based on an incredibly shoddy knowledge of physics, that there couldn't possibly be a 4th spatial dimension that we simply "can't perceive", because things (including ourselves) would be getting knocked into it all the time.

But what if, in a situation ala Flatland, a human being was transported to a completely different universe in which there were 4 spatial dimensions? Let's leave aside the fact that physics would have to be fundamentally different in such a universe, and assume a 4D analogue, as close as possible, to our own universe.

What would that human experience? Is there some biological/physical limit to our eyes that would prevent us from "perceiving" this 4th dimension, and we would just perceive a 3D slice of it? In my mind, there's no reason why photons coming from a trajectory that intersects this 4th direction couldn't reach our eyes. Would our brain, being used to our 3D world, just process it as multiple 3D spaces stacked on top of each other instead of 3D spaces next to each other in a 4th direction? Would a human being be able to consciously move in the 4th direction?

And if these questions are unanswerable, then why?

I attempted, as one does with dimensions, to analyze the 2D->3D analogue, but didn't get anywhere because a 2D "biology" doesn't really make sense, so talking about what they would perceive doesn't really either.

posted over 5 years ago

Nico A‭

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