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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44 <strong>surfing</strong> <strong>through</strong> hyperspace<br />
Removing Egg Yolks<br />
If 4-D creatures existed, they would have the awesome powers discussed in this<br />
chapter. Four-dimensional beings wouldn't have to open doors to get into our<br />
homes. They could simply enter "<strong>through</strong>" the walls. 3 If they were traveling on a<br />
long journey over the Himalayas, they could make the trip easier by detouring<br />
around the jagged peaks and stepping <strong>through</strong> them. (Imagine a 2-D analogy<br />
with jagged lines printed on paper. You could bypass them by stepping into the<br />
third dimension while your 2-D friend has to carefully navigate them like a maze.)<br />
If they were hungry, 4-D hyperparasites (or carnivores) might reach into<br />
your stomach or refrigerator for some food, without opening either. If you suddenly<br />
had 4-D powers, you would never have to worry about being locked outside<br />
your car. You could step "upward" over the door and back inside the car.<br />
Think of the pranks you could play. You could remove the egg yolk from an<br />
egg without cracking it, or the inside of a banana without removing the peel.<br />
You could be the ultimate surgeon, removing tumors without cutting the skin,<br />
thereby reducing the risk of bacterial infections. 4<br />
I shudder to imagine what would happen if these powers got into the wrong<br />
hands. Imagine scenarios more horrifying than dreamed of in Stephen King's<br />
or Anne Rice's worst nightmares: brain-snatchers, blood-suckers, and midnight<br />
muggings by phantom prowlers materializing out of the air. 5<br />
A 4-D being would appear as multiple 3-D objects in 3-D space. Thus, you<br />
could have several disconnected 3-D blobs that were all part of the same being<br />
sharing the same sensations. To our eyes, they could appear to merge and<br />
diverge seemingly at random (Fig. 2.18).<br />
Flatland<br />
Over a century ago, Edwin Abbott Abbott—clergyman and the headmaster of a<br />
school in Victorian England—wrote a wonderful book describing interactions<br />
between creatures of different dimensions. One of Abbott's purposes was to<br />
encourage readers to open their minds to new ways of perceiving. Flatland<br />
described an entire race of 2-D creatures, living in a flat plane, totally unaware<br />
of the existence of a higher dimension all around them. If we were able to look<br />
down on a 2-D universe, we would be able to see inside every structure at once<br />
in the same way a bird could gaze at the maze in Figure 2.19 and see everything<br />
inside, while someone wandering the 2-D floors would have no knowledge of<br />
the maze's structure.