clifford_a-_pickover_surfing_through_hyperspacebookfi-org

HYPERSPHERES AND TESSERACTS 95
Figure 4.9 As the cubical prison moves down, corner-first, through Flatland, the
Flatlanders first see a point, then a series of growing triangles, then hexagons, then
triangles, then a point. (After Banchoff.)
You nod. "Sally, if Satan were a 4-D being, it might be possible to confine
him in a tesseract prison. If it were an ordinary cube, Satan could flee
into the fourth dimension. However, if the cube in our world was really
part of a hypercube, he would be trapped. As he leaped upsilon into the
fourth dimension, he'd just hit his head on a cubical ceiling. Similarly, a
Flatlander having the ability to leap into the third dimension would bang
himself on a cubical prison that spanned his world."
You and Sally are quiet as you gaze outside at the street lights. They
cast shadows that spring up about you as if they are living creatures.
Suddenly most of the lights go out. Others flicker like fireflies.
You turn to Sally. "Must be an electrical problem."
She comes closer to you. "Spooky."
/ want to fly, you think as you stare into the dim room. Fly into the
fourth dimension, like a bird. To fly, to feel the surge of your body as it
lifts into the higher universe. Breathless.
You imagine a force that moves you gently but purposefully upward.
Voices float around you like the breaking of ocean waves on rocks.