clifford_a-_pickover_surfing_through_hyperspacebookfi-org

24 surfing through hyperspace
Figure 2.1 Eight inhabitants of Flatland: woman, soldier, workman, merchant,
professional man, gentleman, nobleman, high priest.
Sally places her hands on her hips. "My problem?"
"Moreover, if we can understand the square's experiences, we'll have a
perfect metaphor for spiritual enlightenment, God, and all manner of
mystic experience."
Sally shakes her head. "Now that's something you're going to have to
prove to me."
"Flatland is a plane inhabited by creatures sliding around in the plane's
surface. Their society is based on a caste system whereby a male's status
depends on the number of sides of his body. Women are mere line segments,
soldiers and workmen are isosceles triangles, merchants are equilateral
triangles, professional men are squares, gentleman are regular
pentagons, and noblemen are regular polygons with six or a greater number
of sides. Their high priests have so many sides that they are indistinguishable
from circles" (Fig. 2.1).
Sally paces around your office as she gazes at various geometrical models
hanging on strings from the ceiling. "Why are women represented by
lowly lines?"
You shrug. "He was satirizing the stodgy, insensitive society of the Victorians.
In the book, irregulars (cripples) are euthenized, and women
have no rights. They're mere lines, infinitely less respected than the
priestly circles with an 'infinite' number of edges."
Sally stares as the Flatland figure showing the various castes of individuals.