clifford_a-_pickover_surfing_through_hyperspacebookfi-org

preface
XVII
Not only may hyperspace play a role on the galactic and universal size scale,
but it may help characterize the ultrasmall. Physicist John A. Wheeler has suggested
that empty space may be filled with countless tiny wormholes connecting
different parts of space, like little tubes that run outside of space and back
in again at some distant point. Wheeler describes these wormholes as running
through "superspace," which seems similar to what science fiction has called
hyperspace for over a half-century.
The FBI's Four-Dimensional Smorgasbord
This book will allow you to travel through dimensions—and you needn't be an
expert in physics, mathematics, or theology. Some information is repeated so that
each chapter contains sufficient background data, but I suggest that you read the
chapters in order as you gradually build your knowledge. I start most chapters
with a dialogue between two quirky FBI agents who experiment with the fourth
dimension from within the (usually) safe confines of their FBI office in Washington,
D.C. You are Chief Investigator of four-dimensional phenomena. Your able
student is a novice FBI agent initially assigned to work with you to debunk your
outlandish theories. But she gradually begins to doubt her own skepticism. This
simple science fiction is not only good fun, but it also serves a serious purpose—
that of expanding your imagination. We might not yet be able to easily travel
into the fourth dimension like the characters in the story, but at least the fourth
dimension is not forbidden by the current laws of physics. I also use science fiction
to explain science because, over the last century, science fiction has done
more to communicate the adventure of science than any physics book. As you
read the story, think about how humans might respond to future developments
in science that could lead to travel in a fourth dimension.
When writing this book, I did not set out to create a systematic and comprehensive
study of the fourth dimension. Instead, I have chosen topics that
interested me personally and that I think will enlighten a wide range of readers.
Although the concept of the fourth dimension is more than a century old,
its strange consequences are still not widely known. People often learn of them
with a sense of awe, mystery, and bewilderment. Even armed with the mathematical
theories in this book, you'll still have only a vague understanding of the
fourth dimension, and various problems, paradoxes, and questions will plague
you. What are the chances that we could learn to communicate with a fourdimensional
extraterrestrial? Would they have internal organs like our own?
We'll encounter all these and other questions as we open doors.