clifford_a-_pickover_surfing_through_hyperspacebookfi-org

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