I am curious of death. Certainly, death can be empirically observed by an outsider, though people experiencing Near Death Experiences all claim to see similar things after they've been brought back.

The unfortunate side of this is the evidence these survivors hold is anecdotal in nature, and can't otherwise be verified until a technology is perfected that allows the interpreted data in their brains to be broadcast, received, and reinterpreted to fit the processing capabilities of a machine.

Despite this, there's a [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MElU0UW0V3Q]Japanese technology[/url] being developed to watch visual stimuli as it's received by the brain. When the machine is perfected, it will allow a person to record their dreams - and possibly record what they see as they die. I wonder what the implications if this technology will be, what new windows it's going to open.

If I were using this dream recorder, I'd absolutely have a blast recording dreams I've had, and possibly prove something about myself that currently, no one believes - though the opposite is also true, as if I can't prove anything, I'm simply imagining this strange thing to happen.

I wonder about the power of the mind: it's capability to store data (amount/method of storage), the ramifications of a consciousness. What would the answer to these questions be? Though I feel I understand how my mind formulates thought, I hesitate to say I understand how the human mind forms thought. A sensory input of some sort, followed by electrical signals and neurotransmitters being released in the brain. There are even specific brain waves related to states of mind, though I fear if the process of conception for any specific abstract thought could be determined, it could lead to the end of free will via abuse of any process or technology used to elicit thoughts. Certainly there's a good side;

It may be possible to enhance a person's thought patterns artificially in this way, allowing them more comprehensive analytical ability, or perhaps a person with writer's block could somehow use this tech to destroy their metaphorical obstacle. All minds with these devices attached could be connected into a construct of consiousness, streamlining any situation requiring a vote or even turning the human population into an ubercomputer - all gathered experience and knowledge on this planet freely accessible and capable of being utilized to solve world problems. You wouldn't need to write anything down so long as you were connected, and you could choose to share an idea or store it in a digital log file. The useful applications are as limitless as the bad, however: people fitted with devices allowing them a basic survival routine, but no aspirations or dreams to do more than they have ever done. A massive hive mind, all thoughts directed to serve a single unchallenged ruler (or board of rulers) to serve selfish interests. Or, the worst thing in my mind - an end to individuality. Perhaps if all humans were connected to an external data terminal of incomprehensible size there could be a simultaneous upload to all people connected, giving everyone the same memories.
However, the question remains whether or not an organic computer (the brain) can override external programming that would assume to overwhelm their own desires/needs.

As far as conceptual ability, I'm unaware of any way to improve a person's thought processes to run in four-dimensional perception. As far as our universe runs, space-time is our fourth dimension, and in that sense we're able to think in four dimensions by relating our past, present, and future. However, mathematically speaking, should a shape be designed in four dimensions, each "side" is a 3-D object, and like our shadows are 2-D, it's shadow would have three dimensions. So perhaps, organisms and objects we see in 3 dimensions are merely the shadows of what we really are in this universe, and the problem is that we think the shadows are our bodies. This unfortunately would give rise to the idea of astral selves, our consciousness without our physical body.

Considering how a person conceptualizes things according to their own experiences, the astral self would be identical to the physical self, with an astral plane, clothes, and everything else as we would experience it in our bodies. Imagine you [i]don't[/i] have a body. Do you see/hear/smell anything? I'd be surprised if you could, because your body lets you sense. It's impossible for a human to do anything without a body, and as far as we know, individual parts don't work on their own.
Now, say you were able to manifest four-dimensionally (and assuming a step up of consciousness to 5 dimensions);

[b]You could not be seen in your true form, but you would see everything[/b]. What I mean by "see everything" is rather simple - do you not know what's inside a circle you draw on a piece of paper? The same change in perspective happens from 4 to 3 dimensions. You would see what a person ate, if they had a tumor, anything. Now, as far as what you could do after seeing such things? You would be able to take a tumor out of a person's body without any pain or blood loss. You could heal any injury to that person instantaneously.

[b]You could not be known, but you would know everything.[/b] Human consciousness works in four dimensions, but humans exist in three. If you were four-dimensional, you would know people's thoughts in the past, present, and future, as well as everything that ever occurred, is occurring, and will occur on a 3-D level.

[b]Hyper-manipulation.[/b] This is where it gets odd - having a 4-D body would allow you to make things apparently disappear to a 3-D being's eyes, much as we humans can take a piece of paper and fold it to add dimension. This addition would make the object completely intangible. You could replicate given objects in the same way a person can draw two (nearly) identical shapes on a piece of paper. Being 4-D, you can create and recreate anything as many times as you need until it's perfect within an instant, though you'd hardly need to if my thought of 3-D bodies being shadows of 4-D ones is true, so you'd only need to influence the 4-D body to make a duplicate shadow (by very simply adding another "light source"), meaning if someone gave you an original Van Gogh, you could make a copy indiscernible from the original in every way. A pair of shoes becomes two pairs. You could use the same process to replicate food. You could also untie impossible knots. A knot in two dimensions is a string with a simple loop - that's pretty easy for a human to untie, right? Simply grab the string and pull it into 3 dimensions. The same can be said of a 3-D knot to a 4-D being: by adding dimension to this impossible knot, it unravels.

[b]Hyper-location.[/b] You would be everywhere simultaneously. That's it.

[b]Creation of an avatar.[/b] The word Avatar applies particularly to the Hindu deity Vishnu, as it is believed Vishnu is the supreme Hindu god who chooses to manifest as all other known Hindu gods, as well as people or animals. However, if you existed in 4-d, you could do the same thing, for any reason you chose.

Of course, this is all theory based in physics - though it quite interestingly enough would be able to explain how a god would do anything god-like. The question in that case would be, how does a 4-D being evolve? No idea. The increase in volume from 3 to 4-D shapes is incredible, and would require entirely different processes of circulation, digestion, and metabolism in general. Plus, what 4-D creatures do we actually know about?

^^ This might not entirely make sense (as in, I would hope I explained things, though my manner of going from one subject to another was odd), but I hope it was entertaining, informative, or perhaps both.