Spacing Out

Yesterday I finished reading a book Amazon recommended to me: Spaceland. Strange stuff, of course, being about spatial dimensions higher than our own, and full of four-dimensional creatures whose look can hardly be described, because you and I have three-dimensional brains and experiences. They are described, however, and this is done primarily through the introduction of words for directions along a fourth spatial axis.

Today I started reading Flatterland, and, fortunately for me, it looks like I have read them in the correct order. Flatterland is, I am led to believe from the opening chapters, going to deal with much more esoteric concepts than continuous spaces of whole dimensions.

I suppose I could have learned this from textbooks about higher mathematics, but, generally speaking, that's not something I can read on the bus. Besides which, they have a tendency to be somewhat unreal, non-grounded and abstract in their explanations. I'm after more of a philosophical text - I'm a mathematical consumer these days, rather than a mathematical scholar.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - So, I guess I'm off to the four-and-a-halfth dimension.
PPS - Don't even ask me what that means yet.