clifford_a-_pickover_surfing_through_hyperspacebookfi-org

130 surfing through hyperspace
Hyperthickness
Is it possible that our space has a slight 4-D hyperthickness? If every object in
our space is a millimeter thick in the direction of the fourth dimension, would
we notice this 4-D component of our bodies? If we are actually 4-D creatures,
and our bodies are only 3-D cross sections of our full bodies, how would we
know?
As I've mentioned repeatedly, the possibility of a fourth dimension led to religious
debate over the centuries. Spiritualists have even wondered whether the
souls of our dead drifted into another dimension. For example, British philosopher
Henry More argued in Enchiridion Metaphysicum (1671) that a nether
realm beyond our tangible senses was a home for ghosts and spirits. His descriptions
were not too far from how modern mathematicians describe a fourth
dimension. Nineteenth-century theologians, always searching for the location of
Heaven and Hell, wondered if they could be found in a higher dimension. Some
theologians represented the universe as three parallel spaces: the Earth, Heaven,
and Hell. Theologian Arthur Willink believed that God was outside of these
three spaces and lived in infinite-dimensional space. Karl Heim's theology,
described in his book Christian Faith and Natural Science, emphasizes the role of
higher dimensions. Several philosophers have suggested that our bodies are simply
3-D cross sections of our higher 4-D selves.
Aliens with Enantiomorphic Ears
Although the vague notion of a fourth dimension had occurred to mathematicians
since the time of Kant, most mathematicians dropped the idea as fanciful
speculation with no possible value. They had not discussed the fact that an
asymmetric solid object could, in theory, be reversed by rotating it through a
higher space. It was not until 1827 that August Ferdinand Mobius, a German
astronomer, showed how this could be done—eighty years after Kant's papers
on dimension.
If you encountered a Flatlander, you could, in principle, lift the Flatlander out
of his plane and flip him around. As a result, his internal organs would be
reversed. For example, a heart on the left side would now be on the right. Similarly,
a 4-D being might flip us around and reverse our organs. Although such
powers are, in principle, possible within the auspices of hyperspace physics, I
should remind readers that the technology to manipulate space in this fashion is