clifford_a-_pickover_surfing_through_hyperspacebookfi-org

THE DIVINITY OF HIGHER DIMENSIONS 25
You open Flatland, searching for a particular page. "Remember, in the
nineteenth century women were considered much less able than men. I
think Abbott was trying to show some of the society's prejudices, because
later in the book a sphere visits Flatland and says: 'It is not for me to classify
human faculties according to merit. Yet many of the best and wisest
of Spaceland think more of your despised Straight Lines than of your
belauded Circles.'"
Sally nods.
"Here, let me read a passage to you in which the square is speaking":
I call our world Flatland, not because we call it so, but to make its
nature clearer to you, my happy readers who are privileged to live in
Space. . . . Imagine a vast sheet of paper on which Lines, Triangles,
Squares, Pentagons, Hexagons, and other figures, instead of remaining
in their places, move freely about, on or in the surface, but without
the power of rising above or sinking below it, very much like shadows—and
you will then have a pretty correct notion of my country
and countrymen. Alas, a few years ago, I should have said "my universe"
but now my mind has been opened to higher view of things.
Outside the window of your office, dark clouds race against the city's
skyline. There's a storm due later tonight. You and Sally look up as a
honk-honk-honk of Canadian geese ride the winds to their winter haven
along the Tangiers Sound. Just overnight, hundreds of ospreys and other
birds were in Washington, D.C., and even on the roof of the FBI building.
You don't mind the duck calls occasionally waking you at night. In
fact, you love the finches and chickadees that flutter about your feeders.
The vultures, however, give you the creeps. Sometimes they perch on the
dead tree in your backyard. At night, they remind you of dark vampires.
Sally looks back at you. "If all the creatures of Flatland move
around in a plane, and only see things in the plane, how can they tell
one another apart? Wouldn't they only see each other's sides?"
"Excellent question. Their atmosphere is hazy and attenuates light.
Those parts of the creature's sides that are farther from the viewer's eye
get dimmer. Close parts are brighter and clearer. Don't forget that our
own retina is a 2-D surface, yet we can distinguish all sorts of objects; for
example, we can tell the difference between a sphere and a disc simply by
their shading."