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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8 <strong>surfing</strong> <strong>through</strong> hyperspace<br />
their hands, cheering your upward flight. The headlights of tiny cars are<br />
wreathed in mist, making you feel as if you're rising up <strong>through</strong> a waterfall<br />
of stars.<br />
Suddenly the sounds and lights disappear. You look down and are<br />
standing on something that looks like asphalt. You can't quite see the<br />
other end of the chain. You are somewhere in the fourth dimension!<br />
You imagine that, to Narcinko, the chain simply ends in space, disappearing<br />
abruptly in midair. There is still tension on the chain, and as you<br />
pull it you can tell that more of the chain is coming toward you.<br />
A vast expanse of space opens before you. Ecstasy! Surely if you were<br />
to cut the chain around your leg, you could fly even further. Physical laws<br />
and rules did not seem to be limitations, only stepping-off points for<br />
something greater, more profound.<br />
Several feet away are some undulating pumpkins. Well, not pumpkins<br />
exactly, but close enough. As you walk you see glass, metal, and concrete<br />
structures—all in strange polyhedral shapes, like large, twinkling stars. A<br />
few greenish, frilly objects float in the air (Fig. 6.2). Plants?<br />
You are drunk with pleasure, but realize that even though you are in a<br />
4-D world, your 3-D perception is capturing only a piece of its true form.<br />
These must be the spatial cross sections of buildings, curbs, streetlights,<br />
bushes, and such. Some of the beings resemble blobs of flesh. Some are<br />
covered with fabric; some are totally naked. You reason that you must be<br />
in a world parallel to your own, elevated upsilon in the fourth dimension.<br />
What would a Flatlander see as he floated in your world? If he could<br />
only perceive in two dimensions, he could only see a piece at a time.<br />
Imagine his confusion as he only saw cross sections of objects: desks,<br />
lights, couches, tables, plants. ... It might drive him mad.<br />
But you are not mad. You breathe more easily now; your heart is beating<br />
slower than a few seconds before. A cool, gentle breeze dries the perspiration<br />
on your forehead. As you look in one direction, you see a<br />
city-like structure with iridescent windows that make the fog radiate and<br />
pulse with life of its own.<br />
Suddenly, three blobs of flesh coalesce in front of you. Leather begins<br />
to surround one of them. Leather? Mad visions of 4-D cows float<br />
<strong>through</strong> your brain.<br />
Then the blobs disappear. Perhaps they are citizens of hyperspace who<br />
had not noticed you, or had seen you but had not cared. Would they be<br />
used to penetration of 3-D worlds into their own?