clifford_a-_pickover_surfing_through_hyperspacebookfi-org
clifford_a-_pickover_surfing_through_hyperspacebookfi-org
clifford_a-_pickover_surfing_through_hyperspacebookfi-org
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MIRROR WORLDS 121<br />
"I've designed a machine that will rotate me into the fourth dimension.<br />
I haven't figured out a way to entirely vault into the fourth dimension,<br />
but even if I have to keep a piece of me here all the time, I can do<br />
some marvelous tricks. But don't worry, the machine is perfectly safe."<br />
You place the device on the cement sidewalk and step on it. "This will<br />
turn me over in the fourth dimension so that I will be rotated into a mirror<br />
image of myself. The machine rotates me about a plane that cuts<br />
<strong>through</strong> my body from head to groin. Watch."<br />
Sally stuffs her fist into her mouth and gasps.<br />
"I am in complete control. Watch as my right half moves delta and my<br />
left half moves upsilon. When a Flatlander rotates, all you see is a line<br />
segment until his entire body fills the plane again. Similarly, you are now<br />
seeing a planar cross section of my body with all of my internal <strong>org</strong>ans."<br />
"Stop it!" Sally says as she looks at wriggling splotches of crimson floating<br />
in the air. Occasionally, the white of bone appears. It's as if a torturer from<br />
the Spanish Inquisition had sliced you with a huge sharp razor from head to<br />
toe and proudly brandished the thin slice in front of Sally (Fig. 5.2).<br />
"Sally, as I rotate, all that remains is my cross section. Looks like sliced<br />
meat. An Omegamorph could turn us into our own mirror images by<br />
rotating us, in the fourth dimension, around planes that cut <strong>through</strong> our<br />
bodies. It's just like the Flatlander rotated about a line into the third<br />
dimension and then back down into the second dimension."<br />
Sally steps back. "This can't be safe. Rotate yourself back to normal<br />
this instant."<br />
"Sally, if you wanted to, you could move in close and tickle my kid-<br />
»<br />
neys.<br />
"You are sick."<br />
After a minute, you rotate back into the 3-D universe. You have<br />
returned to normal, except that you are your mirror image. "Pkool I od<br />
woH"<br />
"What did you say?"<br />
You stare uncertainly at Sally.<br />
Sally's eyes glisten like diamonds. For an instant you feel like light<br />
trapped within a shiny sphere. You peer at her corneas, your image many<br />
times reflected as if you are standing on the periphery of some gigantic<br />
crystal, alone in a field of darkness.<br />
One of her earrings has fallen into a puddle. The puddle shivers. You<br />
are mesmerized by the lovely play of light on the clear rippling surface.