Surfing Through Hyperspace: Understanding Higher Universes in Six Easy Lessons

by Clifford A. Pickover

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195130065
• ISBN13: 9780195130065
• Release Date: September 1999
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Easy to read book about higher ?dimensions?

If you have realised that the concept of more than threeorthogonal spacial dimensions or directions is "lunatic fringe"do not be put off by the title of this book. There is a problem with language in that "dimension" is used for quantities like mass length and time, and is also used meaning orthogonal direction, up/down left/right or front/back. It is this linguistic problem that gives rise to concepts of "four dimensional space" that are really "lunatic fringe". However they are fun! The book will give you ammunition to argue the case against a space with four length directions whilst at the same time entertain you with ideas as to what the universe would be like if there were higher spacial "dimensions" we could not perceive.It is interesting that humans can think about spaces and indeed whole universes that do not exist around us. Dr Pickover will help you to try and visualise such things as universes with four or even more spacial orthogonal directions and how physics and biology would work in such universes. Would electromagnetic radiation be possible? Would sound be possible? Could life that digests foods evolve? It isn't necessarily so, as you will see.When you read this book you can be "god" for a short while creating whole new universes within your head, and explore their properties. There are even some short computer programs to type in and try, if you are proficient at C, BASIC and so on. You will learn far more than mere folklore about the fringes of science and fiction.

Two 4-Dimensional thumbs up!!

You will nod with approval over this entertaining romp through the scientific and speculative world of higher (and lower!) dimensions. Written in Pickover's intensely engaging style, you will feel as though you've actually experienced the Fourth Dimension and other spacious realms. You'll feel like you're in the midst of the action as X-Files-like FBI agents ask the same questions the reader would ask about how other dimensional beings would look. The witty text is highlighted with original photos, cartoons and graphics to aid the reader in visualizing these unseen dimensions. Surfing Through Hyperspace is a "must read" for everyone whose imagination seeks to exceed the boundaries of our 3-D space. You will even grow an extra brain!April Pedersen

Surfing Through Hyperspace is thought at it's peak.

Most people are not ready or willing to accept the idea of a fourth dimension, but, Pickover seems to actually live there a few months out of the year. He steps back into our realm only long enough to create another volume to help the rest of us understand the higher universes he's been traversing. Hyperspace is very thoughtfully researched and written with such talent the world has not seen before and may not see again. It contains just the right amount of imagination without being too speculative. Just enough science without being bogged down with math, and a story to help you understand where he wants to go without resorting to "technobabble". All of the visual ideas are accompanied by simple, easy to digest illustrations. I seriosly recommend this and any other Pickover books that enter your range of interest. I promise you will not be wasting your time or money and you will come away from your experience wiser and able to see the world in a wonderful new way.

An Entertaining and Educational Trip into Hyperspace

Once again, Clifford Pickover has taken an abstract and untangible subject and presented it in an entertaining and educational manner. In his most recent book, Surfing through Hyperspace, Cliff makes us ponder the possibility of higher spatial dimensions, what a 4D "person" would look like to us, what a 4D person can do (to us!), and how one can think of higher dimensions through the analogy of how we perceive 2D "people".This book is appealing to anyone with an interest in expanding their mind. The book is suitable for everyone from the casual reader to experts in the field!

Great Intro to the Fourth Dimension

Superb introduction to the fourth dimension and models of the universe that require higher dimensions. Told with wit and humor. Great illustrations. Some computer recipes. I'm studying physics in college, but even my sister in high school liked most parts. Book topics I liked best: string theory, evolution of 4-D beings, chess played on a Mobius strip, the Monopoly game played in higher dimensions, HyperDNA, optical aids for seeing higher universes, Max Tegmark's wild theories on the dimensionality of spacetime, the religious implications of higher dimensions, Salvador Dali and higher dimensions, and digestive systems in higher dimensions.