clifford_a-_pickover_surfing_through_hyperspacebookfi-org

appendix b
higher dimensions in science fiction
Whether we will ultimately be able to create furniture from curved
space, partake of a multidimensional reality, or directly view all of
humanity's alternate histories, becomes less of a issue than being able
to fuel the imagination with these endless possibilities.
—Sten Odenwald, from the Internet
The children were vanishing. They went in fragments, like thick
smoke in a wind, or like movement in a distorting mirror. Hand in
hand, they went, in a direction Paradine could not understand. . . .
—Lewis Padgett, "Mimsy Were the Borogoves"
In this appendix, I list fascinating science-fiction stories and novels that deal with
the fourth dimension. Where possible, I have attempted to provide the publisher
for each book. (Unfortunately, in some cases, I was not able to find publishers for
out-of-print books.) A number of the science-fiction books were suggested by Dr.
Sten Odenwald, author of The Astronomy Cafe. Dr. Odenwald received his Ph.D.
in astronomy from Harvard University and maintains several interesting web pages
such as "Ask the Astronomer" at http://www2.ari.net/home/odenwald/qadir/
qanda.html. Note that Fantasia Mathematica, cited in many references, has
recently been republished by Springer-Verlag under the Copernicus imprint.
Many books in the science-fiction genre discuss space travel through hyperspace,
but they are too numerous to list. Many deal with ways in which spaceships
take shortcuts to get quickly from one point in the universe to another.
Hyperspace is often described as a higher-dimensional space through which our
3-D space can be folded so that two seemingly distant points are brought close
together. Famous books dealing with hyperspace include: Isaac Asimov's Foundation
series, Larry Niven's The Borderland of Sol (1974), Jerry Pournelle's He
Fell into a Dark Hole (1974), Larry Niven's and Jerry Pournelle's A Mote in God's
Eye, Arthur J. Burk's The First Shall be Last, Raymond F. Jones' Correspondence
Course (1945), and Carl Sagan's Contact (1997) which describes a machine for
creating a "dimple in spacetime" and to which alien engineers attach a "wormhole"
bridge.
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