The possibility of Perception being a dimension?

[Alejaka]

The possibility of "Perception" being a dimension?

Is it possible that perception itself could be a dimension? Now think deeper, not personal perception, but instead the idea of perception in general. Because quiet simply, there are lots of things that exist that we cannot perceive. Just as animals can perceive things we cannot. (and as far as perception goes, I am not talking about interpreting what you see, I am talking about actual perception, what you can physically see and feel to be real. That which is governed by universal principles and law - because there has to be a vast array of things we cannot even pick up on, or know to be true, but are very real -- but I guess from that the question of dreaming could very well come into play. Ever wonder how sometimes in your dreams you could tell the future? or even let's question the future...is time just a like a river...and its a long constant flow from end to end. For example, My dad had a dream that his dead grandmother told him numbers...so when my dad woke up from the dream he wanted to play the lottery, only one problem. one number was missing. So he didnt play. Then the lottery results came in..and it was the same numbers in the same order, and the number that was missing was 0...which was the last number - or lack of a number. But dreaming could be an entirely different subject/topic but i bet its related)

If you look at time, time is a dimension. How does perception twist into this? Quiet simply. A lifetime for a fly is very short lasting compared to a humans life time, from our point of view. But to that fly, their lifetime...feels long - it has too. You cannot simply be born, and then die 20 days later, and be able to say that was a "long" life. Just like with cat years, what exactly explains that 1 year for us is 7 to them? Or is that just ******** ? In their minds...their life could feel much more longer, but out of our perspective its short.

I just want to figure out if perception could be a possible dimension. Now I am sure that idea would clash with other ideas...but what if we were "missing" a lot of information inbetween to connect the ideas together in a way which would make sense.

edit: or what about the idea that life is just a matter of perception governed by physical laws?

 

[Alejaka]

or what about the idea that life is just a matter of perception governed by physical laws?

 

[untiltwilight]

That's kind of a cool idea...and makes perfect sense, too. Hey Alejaka, have you ever read the book called "Hyperspace"?

 

[Alejaka]

Nah man, I've never read hyperspace =\ what is it about?

And @ glen: Why would you say that. If this is a forum, things should be up for discussion. And how can you not have a discussion without being able to question. Thats ridiculous.

 

[nnnm4]

Scientists doubt everything they think about, that's what science does. Have you thought about your claims with this in mind? Cause otherwise it's unscientific...

 

[Alejaka]

nah I am not claiming anything i was just posing a question. i asked my friend more about it, and you i think its wrong in the sense of "dimension". What i was thinking was more on the lines of paralleled universes. Also the dream idea is extremely interesting

 

[ZapperZ]

In physics, when something is a "dimension", it is a necessary component in the complete description of the system. For example, when you write the Lagrangian or Hamiltonian of a system, it consists of a description of the dynamics of the system in terms of space (i.e. location) and time (the dynamics).

To argue that "perception", whatever that is, is a "dimension", you have to show (i) it is in the Lagrangian/Hamiltonian of the system and that (ii) it is an observable, per the observables in QM. One simply cannot argue for it via hand-waving reasons.

Zz.

 

[kjl]

"Perception" is not a weird, magical thing for which we need to resort to hand-wavy guesses and new theories. Dogs seemingly perceive things better than us for a number of reasons, but mostly because they have ~40 times as many chemical receptors in their noses, and the "smell" part of their brain is gigantic, like our visual cortex. When we perceive a smell, again, it's not a magical, unknowable thing: you can http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olfaction" When you see things, you can similarly follow how photos trigger photosensitive cells in your retina, which send signals down to your visual cortex, etc..

There are indeed a "vast number of things we can not pick up on", but again, it's not in the wishy washy realm of dreams - you simply don't have receptors for it. A robot that you build without light sensors is blind, but the things out there that it can not sense are not in a different dimension: the robot simply doesn't have eyes.

As for the story about your dad, grandmother, dreams of lottery ticket numbers, etc.: I encourage you to listen to this entertaining http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2009/09/11" . In short: humans like to see patterns and meaning in random things and coincidence. And your dreams don't ever predict the future: you just assign meaning to the ones that happen to correlate loosely with something that happened afterwards, and discard the rest.