Publisher's Synopsis
In 1884 an English country schoolmaster wrote a book which still enthrals today. Mathematicians and physicists such as Carl Sagan, Michio Kaku, Ian Stewart and Stephen Hawking have all used the amiable inhabitants of 3D Spaceland, 2D Flatland and 1D Lineland from EA Abbott's 'Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions' to show how geometric dimensions build and interact. In a completely original treatment, William Brown takes the simplicity of Abbott's structure to another level by nailing down a set of universal principles and delving into the way the characters perceive their world. The question is then asked... Could such a structure undergird our world? Today's physics is at an impasse. Roger Penrose, Lee Smolin and many others write that we stand on the brink of a new paradigm. With waning confidence in String theory and the refusal of time to divulge her secrets, stuck with the arbitrary fix of Inflation theory, embarrassed by the refusal of dark energy to show up, and dabbling in science fiction with the multiverse, the Standard Model of modern cosmology is in trouble. In addition, modern science has sidestepped all the richness of consciousness by answering the question What is life? with the simplistic assertion that aliveness is physical complexity, with little suggestion as to how such a process might operate. Building on the thought that by taking for granted our 'spatial' dimensions of length, width and depth we may have missed something of great import, the book describes - by extrapolation and analogy - a geometrically consistent nested hierarchy from which a whole new paradigm emerges, and out of which fall in an unforced way answers to many of our deepest questions. The shape of the universe, the nature of time and gravity, and the ascending complexity of life all take their place within an observer-centric dimensional structure which never deviates from the simplicity of Flatland principles. The originality and logical consistency of this carefully considered and meticulously crafted application of EA Abbott's 'Dimensionality' to the real world could light a fire that may never require to be put out.
