🚀 go-pugleaf

John M. Aldrich wrote:
> Timothy Terriberry wrote:
> > connected along _both_ axes is very interesting. Imagining three
> > dimensions arranged on the surface of a sphere is a bit easier for
> > me. But I think in order to actually reverse something through one
> > axis, you would need more dimensions to play with (about 6?), and
> > imagining things that complex is just messy.
> I can't believe I'm actually posting to this unproductive thread again,
> but here goes...
Hey, I _like_ this thread. I stopped seeing messages from it for a while
(might be my messed up news server, who knows?), but was quite pleased
to see it back. I don't care if it's off topic, it's a lot more
interesting than that Console vs PC thread! This one at least promotes
coherent and fullfilling thought (well, sort of :).
> The concept of curved spacetime is demonstrated by Einstein's Theory of
> Relativity, and is both necessary to and a natural consequence of the
> asymptotic nature of the speed of light.  Wherever you go in the
> so-called "sphere" of spacetime, you will always appear to be at the
> exact center.  In a very real sense, every time you appear to move, you
> are actually moving the universe around you.  :)
Well of course, all physics is entirely dependent upon your frame of
reference (though you can change it and still get the same answer,
you'll have to go a different route to get there).
> BTW, for an excellent (fictional) discussion of the nature of
> 6-dimensional spacetime, you should read _The Number of the Beast_ by
> Robert Heinlein.  It's a fascinating mathematical discussion as well as
> a wonderful story.
I love Heinlein's books, but my library doesn't have that title :=(
Aurther C. Clarke also wrote a short story somewhere (who knows what the
title was) that dealt with a man who had been reversed from left to
right. But my favorite about an inverted person is called _Doorways in
the Sand_ by Roger Zelazny, in it a guy actually goes through a mobius
strip contraption (a "Rennius Machine") given to the human race by
aliens because a voice in his mind told him to, all while trying to
escape from goons who accused him of stealing the other alien artifact
donated to us.

-derf