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Surfing Through Hyperspace: Understanding Higher Universes in Six Easy Lessons
Do a little armchair time-travel, rub elbows with a four-dimensional intelligent life form, or stretch your mind to the furthest corner of an uncharted universe. With this astonishing guidebook, Surfing Through Hyperspace , you need not be a mathematician or an astrophysicist to explore the all-but-unfathomable concepts of hyperspace and higher-dimensional geometry.
No subject in mathematics has intrigued both children and adults as much as the idea of a fourth dimension. Philosophers and parapsychologists have meditated on this mysterious space that no one can point to but may be all around us. Yet this extra dimension has a very real, practical value to mathematicians and physicists who use it every day in their calculations. In the tradition of Flatland , and with an infectious enthusiasm, Clifford Pickover tackles the problems inherent in our 3-D brains trying to visualize a 4-D world, muses on the religious implications of the existence of higher-dimensional consciousness, and urges all curious readers to venture into "the unexplored territory lying beyond the prison of the obvious." Pickover alternates sections that explain the science of hyperspace with sections that dramatize mind-expanding concepts through a fictional dialogue between two futuristic FBI agents who dabble in the fourth dimension as a matter of national security. This
highly accessible and entertaining approach turns an intimidating subject into a scientific game open to all dreamers.
Surfing Through Hyperspace concludes with a number of puzzles, computer experiments and formulas for further exploration, inviting readers to extend their minds across this inexhaustibly intriguing scientific terrain.
No subject in mathematics has intrigued both children and adults as much as the idea of a fourth dimension. Philosophers and parapsychologists have meditated on this mysterious space that no one can point to but may be all around us. Yet this extra dimension has a very real, practical value to mathematicians and physicists who use it every day in their calculations. In the tradition of Flatland , and with an infectious enthusiasm, Clifford Pickover tackles the problems inherent in our 3-D brains trying to visualize a 4-D world, muses on the religious implications of the existence of higher-dimensional consciousness, and urges all curious readers to venture into "the unexplored territory lying beyond the prison of the obvious." Pickover alternates sections that explain the science of hyperspace with sections that dramatize mind-expanding concepts through a fictional dialogue between two futuristic FBI agents who dabble in the fourth dimension as a matter of national security. This
highly accessible and entertaining approach turns an intimidating subject into a scientific game open to all dreamers.
Surfing Through Hyperspace concludes with a number of puzzles, computer experiments and formulas for further exploration, inviting readers to extend their minds across this inexhaustibly intriguing scientific terrain.
268 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
22 people are currently reading
359 people want to read
About the author
Clifford A. Pickover
88 books233 followersClifford Alan Pickover is an American author, editor, and columnist in the fields of science, mathematics, science fiction, innovation, and creativity. For many years, he was employed at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown, New York, where he was editor-in-chief of the IBM Journal of Research and Development. He has been granted more than 700 U.S. patents, is an elected Fellow for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, and is author of more than 50 books, translated into more than a dozen languages.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
November 1, 2022
A profound disappointment in six easy lessons!
Queen Victoria almost certainly would have been amused if she had thought to pick up a copy of Edwin Abbott's inventive story FLATLAND when it was first published in 1884. But it's unlikely that she would be amused at the degree to which Pickover has chosen to rehash all of the same ideas - and, not just once, but seeking to dress the same material up as different chapters over and over again. My goodness, there are only so many ways that one can say a three dimensional sphere projects as a circle in two dimensions. Therefore, a four dimensional hypershpere projects into three dimensions as a sphere. OK, OK - I got it the first time!
It's bad enough that SURFING THROUGH HYPERSPACE barely rises above plagiarism. But Pickover has tried to tart the presentation up with a bizarre, pretentious narration that is also a simple rip off from Scully and Mulder of X-Files fame! This silly repetitious presentation borders on insulting to any intelligent reader who, after reading a couple or three chapters, will realize they would have been better off going to the store to buy the original item - FLATLAND.
Any other material that is beyond FLATLAND - wormholes, Many Worlds Theory, quantum mechanics and superluminal contact, to name a few examples - are explained more completely and more clearly in any number of other sources. I did briefly get excited when one chapter headed down a road that looked really promising - multidimensional variations on games like chess and monopoly; knights that weren't allowed to effectively jump into the 3rd dimension by leaping over men on the board; 3-D chess play inside an 8x8 cube; a chess board on a Möbius strip. Then Pickover pulled the ultimate cop out - "We leave exploration of these interesting variations as an exercise to the reader." For crying out loud, if I was a mathematician, a physicist or a game theorist, somehow I doubt I would have purchased the book in the first place!
SURFING THROUGH HYPERSPACE promised a deeper understanding of higher dimensions but, for me, it was a profound disappointment.
Paul Weiss
Queen Victoria almost certainly would have been amused if she had thought to pick up a copy of Edwin Abbott's inventive story FLATLAND when it was first published in 1884. But it's unlikely that she would be amused at the degree to which Pickover has chosen to rehash all of the same ideas - and, not just once, but seeking to dress the same material up as different chapters over and over again. My goodness, there are only so many ways that one can say a three dimensional sphere projects as a circle in two dimensions. Therefore, a four dimensional hypershpere projects into three dimensions as a sphere. OK, OK - I got it the first time!
It's bad enough that SURFING THROUGH HYPERSPACE barely rises above plagiarism. But Pickover has tried to tart the presentation up with a bizarre, pretentious narration that is also a simple rip off from Scully and Mulder of X-Files fame! This silly repetitious presentation borders on insulting to any intelligent reader who, after reading a couple or three chapters, will realize they would have been better off going to the store to buy the original item - FLATLAND.
Any other material that is beyond FLATLAND - wormholes, Many Worlds Theory, quantum mechanics and superluminal contact, to name a few examples - are explained more completely and more clearly in any number of other sources. I did briefly get excited when one chapter headed down a road that looked really promising - multidimensional variations on games like chess and monopoly; knights that weren't allowed to effectively jump into the 3rd dimension by leaping over men on the board; 3-D chess play inside an 8x8 cube; a chess board on a Möbius strip. Then Pickover pulled the ultimate cop out - "We leave exploration of these interesting variations as an exercise to the reader." For crying out loud, if I was a mathematician, a physicist or a game theorist, somehow I doubt I would have purchased the book in the first place!
SURFING THROUGH HYPERSPACE promised a deeper understanding of higher dimensions but, for me, it was a profound disappointment.
Paul Weiss
November 27, 2021
how did he manage to make this misogynistic. the "storyline" was awful, we learn two things about the main character's female accomplice: what she looks like, and that she knows absolutely nothing and desperately needs the man to explain everything to her.
i literally only read it for the facts but even they were disorganised and in some places unexplained. i did learn things, but it's more like disorganised facts rather than actual baseline knowledge that i could use to understand further topics. maybe my expectations were too high.
i literally only read it for the facts but even they were disorganised and in some places unexplained. i did learn things, but it's more like disorganised facts rather than actual baseline knowledge that i could use to understand further topics. maybe my expectations were too high.
July 19, 2016
This book took me a while to finish reading it... not because it was a difficult read, but because I did not enjoy it. I can confirm that the book provides some very good examples of extra-dimensionality. If that is your intent for reading this book (it was mine), then it can be recommended.
However, the reader will need to sort out these examples from other material in the book. The book goes beyond the theme of explaining extra-dimensionality and adds some material that I found boring or incorrect. One addition is that the author interleaved a fictional story throughout the book based on an X-files-type genre. I found the story corny and it did not work for me as supporting the book’s purpose.
The most serious problem with the book is that the author attempts to make theological assertions based on an understanding of extra-dimensional phenomena, and most of these are filled with errors. Occasionally we find published works in which an author who is an expert in one niche field of study will make claims about another field of study in which he is not knowledgeable. These attempts fail, and they show the author is no better than the rest of the population’s knowledge about the subject... and in some cases the author’s knowledge is even worse than what is commonly known. Sadly, this is the case with this book.
Here are a few illustrations of this from the book:
---
His claim: People throughout human history have not been worshiping “God” but have been actually worshiping hyperbeings because they weren’t “enlightened” about extra-dimensionality.
The problem: The author has created a straw-man for what he thinks to be “God” and then uses extra-dimensionality phenomena to explain it. In reality, the author has an incorrect understanding of God that is not consistent with theology. His approach is that he starts with hyperspace and then “brings a caricature of God in.” He claims that this view is somehow compatible with the straw man of God that he has created, but it actually does not work.
---
His claim: Jesus is a created being no different from us or the rest of the universe.
The problem: This is a serious theological error on the identity of Jesus that dismisses what Jesus claims about Himself (and what He did to substantiate it). It also flies in the face of all serious theological scholarship about Jesus from the last 2,000 years.
---
The problem: This is a poor example to use, because it is well-established by the overwhelming majority of biblical scholars that this work is a forgery. It is not a gospel, nor written by Thomas, and has been shown to have been written about 200-300 years later than the time period it claims. It includes Gnostic thinking consistent with that time period that is at odds with Christian teaching.
---
The problem: This is incredible hubris. The author claims you can explain away a belief in God and other “mystical” experiences with an understanding of extra-dimensionality.
---
The above are only a few examples, but there are many more errors like this throughout the book. So I am not able to recommend it. For a better work that properly connects extra-dimensionality with theology, I would recommend a book such as Hugh Ross’ Beyond the Cosmos: What Recent Discoveries in Astrophysics Reveal about the Glory and Love of God.
However, the reader will need to sort out these examples from other material in the book. The book goes beyond the theme of explaining extra-dimensionality and adds some material that I found boring or incorrect. One addition is that the author interleaved a fictional story throughout the book based on an X-files-type genre. I found the story corny and it did not work for me as supporting the book’s purpose.
The most serious problem with the book is that the author attempts to make theological assertions based on an understanding of extra-dimensional phenomena, and most of these are filled with errors. Occasionally we find published works in which an author who is an expert in one niche field of study will make claims about another field of study in which he is not knowledgeable. These attempts fail, and they show the author is no better than the rest of the population’s knowledge about the subject... and in some cases the author’s knowledge is even worse than what is commonly known. Sadly, this is the case with this book.
Here are a few illustrations of this from the book:
---
Preface - “The powers of these ‘hyperbeings’ are a central topic of this book. I call such four-dimensional beings ‘Gods’.”
Introduction – “A four-dimensional being would be a God to us.”
Chapter 3 – “I want to know what it feels like to be a God.”
Introduction - The author includes an illustration of two awestruck church-goers in a pew witnessing a 4-D hyperbeing intersect with our reality.
His claim: People throughout human history have not been worshiping “God” but have been actually worshiping hyperbeings because they weren’t “enlightened” about extra-dimensionality.
The problem: The author has created a straw-man for what he thinks to be “God” and then uses extra-dimensionality phenomena to explain it. In reality, the author has an incorrect understanding of God that is not consistent with theology. His approach is that he starts with hyperspace and then “brings a caricature of God in.” He claims that this view is somehow compatible with the straw man of God that he has created, but it actually does not work.
---
Chapter 3 – “According to the many-worlds theory, there could be universes where Jesus was the son of God, universes where Jesus was the son of the devil, and universes where Jesus did not exist.”
His claim: Jesus is a created being no different from us or the rest of the universe.
The problem: This is a serious theological error on the identity of Jesus that dismisses what Jesus claims about Himself (and what He did to substantiate it). It also flies in the face of all serious theological scholarship about Jesus from the last 2,000 years.
---
Introduction – The author includes a quote from the Gospel of Thomas, supposedly to give support to his claims of a connection between extra-dimensionality and Christianity.
The problem: This is a poor example to use, because it is well-established by the overwhelming majority of biblical scholars that this work is a forgery. It is not a gospel, nor written by Thomas, and has been shown to have been written about 200-300 years later than the time period it claims. It includes Gnostic thinking consistent with that time period that is at odds with Christian teaching.
---
Chapter 2 - “...if we can understand the square’s experiences, we’ll have a perfect metaphor for spiritual enlightenment, God, and all manner of mystic experience.”
The problem: This is incredible hubris. The author claims you can explain away a belief in God and other “mystical” experiences with an understanding of extra-dimensionality.
---
The above are only a few examples, but there are many more errors like this throughout the book. So I am not able to recommend it. For a better work that properly connects extra-dimensionality with theology, I would recommend a book such as Hugh Ross’ Beyond the Cosmos: What Recent Discoveries in Astrophysics Reveal about the Glory and Love of God.
August 13, 2017
So I wrote a review but had checked "spoilers", but when I went to edit the review just to uncheck it, it deleted my entire review! What the hell, Goodreads!
Anyway, to summarise my deleted review:
terrible book,
written by an idiot,
repeats the same "what if Flatland was in 3D instead of 2D" idea over and over again,
Worst excuse for X-Files fanfic I've ever read, in which "Mulder" spends the entire time mansplaining 4D to "Scully" (who gets fondled by a 4D being in the end, spoilers)
"Six Easy Lessons" is a complete misnomer, there aren't any lessons here, and I don't even think there are 6 chapters as one chapter is entirely taken up by the shitty X-Files story (which by the way is written in the second person, and has "you" alternatively lecturing "Sally" on 4D and longing after her tiny little hands and hair that smells like autumn, BARF)
Final thing about the X-Files ripoff is that every other sentence that "you" say starts with "Sally,...". Even when you're the only two people in the scene.
Also the diagrams seem to be drawn in MS Paint. And the author cannot draw a simple stick figure.
I hated this book so much. I was so disappointed. If the 4th dimension is going to be populated by guys like Clifford Pickover then leave me in this one please.
Anyway, to summarise my deleted review:
terrible book,
written by an idiot,
repeats the same "what if Flatland was in 3D instead of 2D" idea over and over again,
Worst excuse for X-Files fanfic I've ever read, in which "Mulder" spends the entire time mansplaining 4D to "Scully" (who gets fondled by a 4D being in the end, spoilers)
"Six Easy Lessons" is a complete misnomer, there aren't any lessons here, and I don't even think there are 6 chapters as one chapter is entirely taken up by the shitty X-Files story (which by the way is written in the second person, and has "you" alternatively lecturing "Sally" on 4D and longing after her tiny little hands and hair that smells like autumn, BARF)
Final thing about the X-Files ripoff is that every other sentence that "you" say starts with "Sally,...". Even when you're the only two people in the scene.
Also the diagrams seem to be drawn in MS Paint. And the author cannot draw a simple stick figure.
I hated this book so much. I was so disappointed. If the 4th dimension is going to be populated by guys like Clifford Pickover then leave me in this one please.
February 20, 2014
I wanted to like it.
But, blea!
The information is overly simplistic, he relies far too much on 'Flatland' (you would be better off reading Flatland in fact), hes repetitive, the 'fiction' story is drivel, and I do not believe he can go more than three pages without mentioning God or Gods.
If you are interested in 4D objects and beings and you have no idea what those things are, then maybe this book would be okay... maybe, but I don't see how.
I suggest you PICK OVER this one as it deserves to be at the bottom of a CLIFF (Yes I am bad and I should be punished).
But, blea!
The information is overly simplistic, he relies far too much on 'Flatland' (you would be better off reading Flatland in fact), hes repetitive, the 'fiction' story is drivel, and I do not believe he can go more than three pages without mentioning God or Gods.
If you are interested in 4D objects and beings and you have no idea what those things are, then maybe this book would be okay... maybe, but I don't see how.
I suggest you PICK OVER this one as it deserves to be at the bottom of a CLIFF (Yes I am bad and I should be punished).
February 4, 2016
This is a dreadful book about a topic which could be made interesting and accessible by the right writer, but this one is anything but. The thing that is really off-putting is the decision by the author to include a "story" based loosely on the TV series "The X Files" to illustrate multidimensional phenomena. The story line is drivel which tries to inject an element of horror by having the hyper-dimensional beings dip into our three-space seeking food! All I can say is that the idea that a 4-D creature would find 3-D creatures (which would have zero dimension in one of its four dimensions) palatable or tasty is a clear nonsense. Where it tries to "explain" higher dimensions in a factual manner, there is far too much emphasis on Abbott's Flatland. I am so disgusted that I even started reading this. Don't bother with it.
December 1, 2009
Strange hybrid between a story and popular science. Has some interesting views on 4D, plus a history of the thoughts about 4D. How a 4D creature would see, live, look like, comparing to us. How would we see, if pulled out in 4D are all very interesting topics. It has various examples of 4D objects like cubes and spheres. It was useful to me, with tho major problems.
The story sucks. It was put there to make the book more interesting to non-nerds, but it doesn't do much good.
Second, and this is common to all previous researchers of 4D, the author assumes that we are 3D creatures, and how we would fare meeting 4D creatures. He offers an analogy to 3D creatures (like us), meeting 2D creatures (flat ones, living on the surface of a lake for example). The problem being that there are no 2D creatures under our laws of physics. There could be none, except maybe living between two polished metal plates or something. I have no idea how they would evolve like that. And even if they did, they would not be able to do the things described by the author, or any previous researchers. You will not be able to make blood transfusions without braking their skin.
So, 2D creatures are practically non-existent. The animals living on the surface of a body of water would move and maybe THINK in 2D, but they will be regular 3D objects. So will an ant on a globe. Thus if there is a 4-th dimension we are regular 4D creatures, that move and think in 3D. No bloodless 4D operations, sorry.
If you are interested in the 4-th dimension and like mathematics, this is a good book to read. Just skip the story and do not take everything written as truth.
The story sucks. It was put there to make the book more interesting to non-nerds, but it doesn't do much good.
Second, and this is common to all previous researchers of 4D, the author assumes that we are 3D creatures, and how we would fare meeting 4D creatures. He offers an analogy to 3D creatures (like us), meeting 2D creatures (flat ones, living on the surface of a lake for example). The problem being that there are no 2D creatures under our laws of physics. There could be none, except maybe living between two polished metal plates or something. I have no idea how they would evolve like that. And even if they did, they would not be able to do the things described by the author, or any previous researchers. You will not be able to make blood transfusions without braking their skin.
So, 2D creatures are practically non-existent. The animals living on the surface of a body of water would move and maybe THINK in 2D, but they will be regular 3D objects. So will an ant on a globe. Thus if there is a 4-th dimension we are regular 4D creatures, that move and think in 3D. No bloodless 4D operations, sorry.
If you are interested in the 4-th dimension and like mathematics, this is a good book to read. Just skip the story and do not take everything written as truth.
March 31, 2012
I like books that expand the thinking process in general. This is one of those books. The story line he uses to introduce the concepts is straight out of X files and a old and campy detective novel and it gets rather annoying. However, the concepts and ideas are very though provoking. It is worth the read, but it took me several stops and starts to get through it because of this.
March 13, 2013
I am somewhat reluctant to give this book 3 stars, due to my level of distraction, i may not be judging it fairly, it may deserve 4. It is not as fascinating for me, or readable as ivar peterson's books.
October 21, 2013
Written in the typical eclectic style of the author, a bit repetitive and annoyingly speculative at times, but nonetheless thought-provoking introduction to the fourth dimension.
December 13, 2015
Amiable wandering
The book wandered through some high level moments and then some relatively silly so-called science fiction escapades riffing off Scully and Mulder.
The book wandered through some high level moments and then some relatively silly so-called science fiction escapades riffing off Scully and Mulder.
December 26, 2021
If objects or entities with four or even five dimensions were to intersect our three-dimensional world (hopefully not to eat or conquer us), how would they look? It's an intriguing question, especially when you consider that both the retina and the sensory network into which it feeds are really only set up to handle the 2D.
Ultimately the question's as rhetorical as asking what a symphony sounds like to the deaf, but author Clifford A. Pickover has a lot of fun mulling over the question. The problem (for this reader, and certainly others) is that he has a little too much fun and doesn't do quite enough explaining. His method is to follow a Mulder and Scully-esque FBI duo's journey to the fourth dimension, just to make the science and math more accessible to the layman. I suppose that's better than donning a pair of Vulcan ears to make your point, but the storyline detracts rather than underlines a lot of the assertions he's making. Even worse is that he uses his multidimensional migration along points he calls Upsilon and Delta to talk about about God's war with his fallen angel, Satan. I love "Paradise Lost," as much as the next poetry fan, and I'm sure theologians of the apologetics strain would appreciate the attempted concordism between science and God, but it seemed a misplaced effort, and a possible conflation of the metaphysical and mathematical. Sure they intersect in certain ways, but I don't think divine geometry and the literal kind are necessarily pure and clear analogues. Maybe I could smoke some DMT to find an answer to that question? (Paging Dr. Rogan)
If you're in the mood for a whacky, semi-serious effort from a brilliant man who's trying to make things accessible for the 100-level crowd, though, you may find "Surfing through Hyperspace" fruitful where this reader found it frustrating. With lots of illustrations, photos, X-rays, PET scans, and all kinds of other visual material to help you visualize the higher and lower planes. The squeamish and prudish should be forewarned, though, that a lot of the alien "flesh balls" have an unsettling hairy scrotal quality to them, and Pickover peppers the text with a bunch of puerile jokes about his interdimensional balls. Har-d-har.
Ultimately the question's as rhetorical as asking what a symphony sounds like to the deaf, but author Clifford A. Pickover has a lot of fun mulling over the question. The problem (for this reader, and certainly others) is that he has a little too much fun and doesn't do quite enough explaining. His method is to follow a Mulder and Scully-esque FBI duo's journey to the fourth dimension, just to make the science and math more accessible to the layman. I suppose that's better than donning a pair of Vulcan ears to make your point, but the storyline detracts rather than underlines a lot of the assertions he's making. Even worse is that he uses his multidimensional migration along points he calls Upsilon and Delta to talk about about God's war with his fallen angel, Satan. I love "Paradise Lost," as much as the next poetry fan, and I'm sure theologians of the apologetics strain would appreciate the attempted concordism between science and God, but it seemed a misplaced effort, and a possible conflation of the metaphysical and mathematical. Sure they intersect in certain ways, but I don't think divine geometry and the literal kind are necessarily pure and clear analogues. Maybe I could smoke some DMT to find an answer to that question? (Paging Dr. Rogan)
If you're in the mood for a whacky, semi-serious effort from a brilliant man who's trying to make things accessible for the 100-level crowd, though, you may find "Surfing through Hyperspace" fruitful where this reader found it frustrating. With lots of illustrations, photos, X-rays, PET scans, and all kinds of other visual material to help you visualize the higher and lower planes. The squeamish and prudish should be forewarned, though, that a lot of the alien "flesh balls" have an unsettling hairy scrotal quality to them, and Pickover peppers the text with a bunch of puerile jokes about his interdimensional balls. Har-d-har.
March 11, 2023
Surfing Through Hyperspace is an interesting read. This book is not just limited to the mathematicians and physicists. Even general reader like myself can get something out of it.
The concept of interacting with beings from a lower or higher dimension can be used as a way to explore the limitations and possibilities of our own understanding of reality. And this is what Pickover did. He made the classic book “Flatland” by Edwin Abbott, as his reference point. A two-dimensional being living in a world of flat surfaces, is visited by us, that is a three-dimensional being.
So, if you want to stretch your brain into the 4-dimensional world (not so probable it may sound), the book can walk through you into that higher dimension.
More from my blog post: Surfing Through Hyperspace
The concept of interacting with beings from a lower or higher dimension can be used as a way to explore the limitations and possibilities of our own understanding of reality. And this is what Pickover did. He made the classic book “Flatland” by Edwin Abbott, as his reference point. A two-dimensional being living in a world of flat surfaces, is visited by us, that is a three-dimensional being.
So, if you want to stretch your brain into the 4-dimensional world (not so probable it may sound), the book can walk through you into that higher dimension.
More from my blog post: Surfing Through Hyperspace
January 23, 2020
A few years ago I was slated to write an essay on higher dimensional geometry but I didn’t feel welcome in the community where I was going to post it.
No one would ever really interact with what I would say anyway, so I figured it would be ignored like all my other messages, so I didn’t post it there, or write it, and kept it in my head until later. I researched but didn’t really share my thoughts.
I have decided to use this space for that designated purpose instead.
To start, there are abstract shapes that don’t exist in this physical space, but that can be imagined, although they don’t occur naturally and are mostly impractical for this spatial dimension we are in.
No one would ever really interact with what I would say anyway, so I figured it would be ignored like all my other messages, so I didn’t post it there, or write it, and kept it in my head until later. I researched but didn’t really share my thoughts.
I have decided to use this space for that designated purpose instead.
To start, there are abstract shapes that don’t exist in this physical space, but that can be imagined, although they don’t occur naturally and are mostly impractical for this spatial dimension we are in.
June 27, 2025
Good summary of higher dimensions - some really good insights and thought experiments too! I’d point to this book as a great intro to higher-d concepts
It’s a weird book - but we should all know that just by the cover and summary. Higher dimensional spaces are a weird and imaginative topic, the book matches that. Some of the weird parts get weird - shocker.
Star off because of the misogynistic undertones, and the unnecessary sexualizing of Sally.
It’s a weird book - but we should all know that just by the cover and summary. Higher dimensional spaces are a weird and imaginative topic, the book matches that. Some of the weird parts get weird - shocker.
Star off because of the misogynistic undertones, and the unnecessary sexualizing of Sally.
October 16, 2025
I will probably have to come back to this book later.
March 6, 2012
The title of the book is a lesson in itself on how to attract your audience. I am attracted by science fiction. This book is a non-fiction work that reads like Douglas Adams "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." I do not understand the higher math required to describe the Fourth Dimension. I can grasp the subject through storytelling and my own imagination.
The author Pickover captured my attention with quotes from the Baha'i Scriptures. I am a Baha'i.
In the Acknowledgements at the front of the book:
"Dost thou reckon thyself only a puny form when within thee the universe is folded?", Baha'u'llah (19th Century), quoting Imam Ali(7th Century).
In the Preface:
"To consider that after the death of the body the spirit perishes is like imagining that a bird in a cage will be destroyed if the cage is broken, though the bird has nothing to fear from the destruction of the cage...", Abdu'l-Baha (20th Century).
Is this a timely topic? National Public Radio posted on Facebook today, January 11, 2012, about the age, shape and size of the Universe. There were nearly 1,000 comments posted the first 40 minutes. I read NPR no further, because they are stuck on pop science and the Big Bang Theory. Pickover's Six Easy Lessons covers old thinking, and views I never thought about. Can you draw a diagram of your view of three dimensions as seen from the fourth dimension, beyond time? He does.
I put this book aside, while reading an older title that Pickover references. "Flatland", by Edwin A. Abbott, takes you back 160 years, when discussions of other dimensions was a controversial subject. Only academia (Oxford) had the freedom to explore. God forbid that a woman should enter this arena.
None of these authors, including Pickover, consider the possibility of dimensions other than physical. Spiritual reality, for them, can not be limited to experience without a rational, measurable physical reality. What if measurement of reality lies beyond the standards imposed by "modern" thinkers in whatever age?
Read the appendices at the end of the book; good reference material, further reading list, and websites to explore.
By the time I finished the book, I recognized that multiple dimension artistry and language has been current throughout my life. One of the art lessons I presented as a volunteer in our local 6th grade last month went back to the Book of Kells, on display at Trinity College, Dublin, and the St. John's Illuminated Bible, portions of which can be seen on display in churches. Attempts to view other dimensions can be seen in Irish "pagan" symbols dating prior to 500 BCE. One tradition date some symbols to the Biblical Prophet Jeremiah who traveled to Ireland via Gibraltar; carried forward from Judaism to Pagan to Christian art.
The author Pickover captured my attention with quotes from the Baha'i Scriptures. I am a Baha'i.
In the Acknowledgements at the front of the book:
"Dost thou reckon thyself only a puny form when within thee the universe is folded?", Baha'u'llah (19th Century), quoting Imam Ali(7th Century).
In the Preface:
"To consider that after the death of the body the spirit perishes is like imagining that a bird in a cage will be destroyed if the cage is broken, though the bird has nothing to fear from the destruction of the cage...", Abdu'l-Baha (20th Century).
Is this a timely topic? National Public Radio posted on Facebook today, January 11, 2012, about the age, shape and size of the Universe. There were nearly 1,000 comments posted the first 40 minutes. I read NPR no further, because they are stuck on pop science and the Big Bang Theory. Pickover's Six Easy Lessons covers old thinking, and views I never thought about. Can you draw a diagram of your view of three dimensions as seen from the fourth dimension, beyond time? He does.
I put this book aside, while reading an older title that Pickover references. "Flatland", by Edwin A. Abbott, takes you back 160 years, when discussions of other dimensions was a controversial subject. Only academia (Oxford) had the freedom to explore. God forbid that a woman should enter this arena.
None of these authors, including Pickover, consider the possibility of dimensions other than physical. Spiritual reality, for them, can not be limited to experience without a rational, measurable physical reality. What if measurement of reality lies beyond the standards imposed by "modern" thinkers in whatever age?
Read the appendices at the end of the book; good reference material, further reading list, and websites to explore.
By the time I finished the book, I recognized that multiple dimension artistry and language has been current throughout my life. One of the art lessons I presented as a volunteer in our local 6th grade last month went back to the Book of Kells, on display at Trinity College, Dublin, and the St. John's Illuminated Bible, portions of which can be seen on display in churches. Attempts to view other dimensions can be seen in Irish "pagan" symbols dating prior to 500 BCE. One tradition date some symbols to the Biblical Prophet Jeremiah who traveled to Ireland via Gibraltar; carried forward from Judaism to Pagan to Christian art.
February 19, 2014
Wonders of Hyperspace
This is an introduction to the understanding of fourth dimension. Most books, science-TV shows, and websites introduce fourth dimension by comparing the interaction of the three dimensional beings (us) with imaginary 2-dimensional dwellers (flatlanders). Our interaction with flatlanders causes mystery and miracle to them simply by the virtue of us having the freedom of an extra dimension. From this we can extrapolate to the interaction of imaginary four dimensional dwellers with our world and they certainly appear to us as mysterious. This book illustrates these comparisons in the form of conversations between two (male and female) fictitious FBI agents. Although the author does a good job of helping the reader develop a good feeling for the fourth dimension, the dialogue between FBI agents sometimes gets sensual, which the author could have certainly avoided in a science related book (sometimes it gives you a feeling that you are reading a semi-romantic novel). There is no doubt the author is influenced by the TV show X-files as he often quotes from the show. Towards the end of the book, the author briefly touches upon the fifth dimension.
Hyperspace is not excluded by the laws of physics. Can human beings access fourth dimension? Could we learn to see the fourth dimension? Is it true that the evolution of human brain is such that it can understand only three dimensions? Do we need three dimensional retina to see the fourth dimension? Is hyperspace a survival zone for humans in the event of a catastrophe to this planet? Some of the suggestions made in the conclusions are less scientific, but the author touches some interesting topics that include biology of evolution and psychology.
The author gives many simple problems (brain-teasers) to help reader to reach the peak of his imagination and thoughts to visualize hyperspace. The book is almost free of physics and mathematics. I encourage the reader to buy this book despite the author's unorthodox approach in the writing a book on a scientific topic.
This is an introduction to the understanding of fourth dimension. Most books, science-TV shows, and websites introduce fourth dimension by comparing the interaction of the three dimensional beings (us) with imaginary 2-dimensional dwellers (flatlanders). Our interaction with flatlanders causes mystery and miracle to them simply by the virtue of us having the freedom of an extra dimension. From this we can extrapolate to the interaction of imaginary four dimensional dwellers with our world and they certainly appear to us as mysterious. This book illustrates these comparisons in the form of conversations between two (male and female) fictitious FBI agents. Although the author does a good job of helping the reader develop a good feeling for the fourth dimension, the dialogue between FBI agents sometimes gets sensual, which the author could have certainly avoided in a science related book (sometimes it gives you a feeling that you are reading a semi-romantic novel). There is no doubt the author is influenced by the TV show X-files as he often quotes from the show. Towards the end of the book, the author briefly touches upon the fifth dimension.
Hyperspace is not excluded by the laws of physics. Can human beings access fourth dimension? Could we learn to see the fourth dimension? Is it true that the evolution of human brain is such that it can understand only three dimensions? Do we need three dimensional retina to see the fourth dimension? Is hyperspace a survival zone for humans in the event of a catastrophe to this planet? Some of the suggestions made in the conclusions are less scientific, but the author touches some interesting topics that include biology of evolution and psychology.
The author gives many simple problems (brain-teasers) to help reader to reach the peak of his imagination and thoughts to visualize hyperspace. The book is almost free of physics and mathematics. I encourage the reader to buy this book despite the author's unorthodox approach in the writing a book on a scientific topic.
May 31, 2013
This book explored the fourth dimension. The author attempts to tackle the problem with our #D oriented minds that prevents us from visualizing the fourth dimension, which is essential for mathematicians and physicists. He ponders the religious implications of a fourth dimensional consciousness.
I really wanted to like this book. I enjoy good non-fiction as long as it isn’t dry. This book was touted as accessible, readable, and interesting. The author tried to make it accessible by writing it as a story instead of a guidebook. I guess it somehow just missed the mark for me. I just don’t think this book should have been written in the second person. It definitely took something away from a book that may otherwise have been quite tolerable. At some points in the book I felt that the author was just repeating the same information in different words over and over again. It was like he couldn’t find anything new to say, so he chose to drag the book out by going on and on relentlessly. It is like an essay by a high-school student that is just trying to fill empty space and fit the page requirements. Also, the story part of it was just plain cheesy.
It was hard to stay focused and very uninteresting to me. I would not recommend this book.
I really wanted to like this book. I enjoy good non-fiction as long as it isn’t dry. This book was touted as accessible, readable, and interesting. The author tried to make it accessible by writing it as a story instead of a guidebook. I guess it somehow just missed the mark for me. I just don’t think this book should have been written in the second person. It definitely took something away from a book that may otherwise have been quite tolerable. At some points in the book I felt that the author was just repeating the same information in different words over and over again. It was like he couldn’t find anything new to say, so he chose to drag the book out by going on and on relentlessly. It is like an essay by a high-school student that is just trying to fill empty space and fit the page requirements. Also, the story part of it was just plain cheesy.
It was hard to stay focused and very uninteresting to me. I would not recommend this book.
March 18, 2015
I love Cliff Pickover because his voracious intellectual appetites match mine for their breadth. Alas, though he has written a score or more of nonfiction books, he still hasn't gotten down the skill of tying these different areas together to arrive at any kind of synthesis or conclusion, however tentative.
Instead, his method remains the same: do a brain dump of whatever topic currently interests him into a few Word files, go off on various tangents in even more Word files, find representative samples of artwork and sprinkle them throughout the Word files, and tack on a few appendices that explore even more tangential topics. In this book he embeds all these parts in a tin-eared fictional narrative about two FBI agents based in equal parts on the X-Files and on Abbott's classic Flatland .
Like I said, I love him. Pickover books may be less than the sum of their parts, but the parts are always provocative and interesting.
Instead, his method remains the same: do a brain dump of whatever topic currently interests him into a few Word files, go off on various tangents in even more Word files, find representative samples of artwork and sprinkle them throughout the Word files, and tack on a few appendices that explore even more tangential topics. In this book he embeds all these parts in a tin-eared fictional narrative about two FBI agents based in equal parts on the X-Files and on Abbott's classic Flatland .
Like I said, I love him. Pickover books may be less than the sum of their parts, but the parts are always provocative and interesting.
July 27, 2009
This is a popular science book on the subject of higher dimensions. Pickover switches between discussion of the history of thought of the fourth dimension (with a side trip into two-dimensional flatlands), and a mock "X-Files" story of FBI investigations of extra-dimensional creatures. There are a lot of quotes from popular culture, from "The X-Files" itself to various works of fiction, and it should have been a nice breezy book, except that I suspect even an "X-Files" fan would find the X-pastiche to be kind of hokey, and I was never an "X-Files" fan.
It has useful information, but it may say something that I found the appendices more interesting than the chapters of the book. I will probably look up the other books and stories quoted inside, and the formulas are useful, but this is not a book you need to read.
It has useful information, but it may say something that I found the appendices more interesting than the chapters of the book. I will probably look up the other books and stories quoted inside, and the formulas are useful, but this is not a book you need to read.
March 8, 2013
Amazing introduction to higher dimensions. As a physics postgrad student I find this book funny, eye-opening and educational at the same time. Easy to read. Definitely not dry!
I recommend this book to physics and higher math enthusiasts, wholeheartedly.
I recommend this book to physics and higher math enthusiasts, wholeheartedly.
October 12, 2024
A well written starting point to understand how dimensions work. There is a easy to follow story mixed in with the more complex aspects of inter-dimensionality, and presents what a hypothetically higher dimension would be like, look like, and act to our present understanding.
April 24, 2008
You can tell that a nerd wrote this.
July 27, 2010
I found this to be a fun book that really made me think about the world we live in!
March 28, 2012
The science is good and fun to read about, the "story" part is bad. Seriously, who writes in 2nd person?
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