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Planiverse
''The Planiverse'' () is a novel by A. K. Dewdney, written in 1984. Development In 1977, Dewdney was inspired by an allegory of a two-dimensional universe, and decided to expand upon the physics and chemistry of such a universe. He published a short monograph in 1979 called ''Two-Dimensional Science and Technology''. This was reviewed by Martin Gardner in his July 1980 "Mathematical Games (column), Mathematical Games" column in ''Scientific American'', and shortly after this, all copies of the monograph were sold out. In 1981, following the success of the monograph, Dewdney published ''A Symposium on Two-Dimensional Science and Technology'', which contained suggestions for how a two-dimensional universe would work from scientists and non-scientists on varied subjects. Dewdney wrote ''The Planiverse'' as a frame story in which to display the scientific and technical features from these previous works, as well as an allegory for his search for a reality deeper than that of scientific ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flatland
''Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions'' is a satirical novella by the English schoolmaster Edwin Abbott Abbott, first published in 1884 by Seeley & Co. of London. Written pseudonymously by "A Square", the book used the fictional two-dimensional world of Flatland to comment on the hierarchy of Victorian culture, but the novella's more enduring contribution is its examination of dimensions. Several films have been made from the story, including the feature film '' Flatland'' (2007). Other efforts have been short or experimental films, including one narrated by Dudley Moore and the short films '' Flatland: The Movie'' (2007) and '' Flatland 2: Sphereland'' (2012). Plot The story describes a two-dimensional world occupied by geometric figures; women are simple line segments, while men are polygons with various numbers of sides. The narrator is a square, a member of the caste of gentlemen and professionals, who guides the readers through some of the implications of life ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin Gardner
Martin Gardner (October 21, 1914May 22, 2010) was an American popular mathematics and popular science writer with interests also encompassing scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literatureespecially the writings of Lewis Carroll, L. Frank Baum, and G. K. Chesterton.Martin (2010) He was also a leading authority on Lewis Carroll. '' The Annotated Alice'', which incorporated the text of Carroll's two Alice books, was his most successful work and sold over a million copies. He had a lifelong interest in magic and illusion and in 1999, MAGIC magazine named him as one of the "100 Most Influential Magicians of the Twentieth Century". He was considered the doyen of American puzzlers. He was a prolific and versatile author, publishing more than 100 books. Gardner was best known for creating and sustaining interest in recreational mathematicsand by extension, mathematics in generalthroughout the latter half of the 20th century, principally through his " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Creatures (video Game Series)
''Creatures'' is an artificial life video game series, created in the mid-1990s by English computer scientist Steve Grand whilst working for the Cambridge video games developer Millennium Interactive. Gameplay focuses on raising alien creatures known as Norns, teaching them to survive, helping them explore their world, defending them against other species, and breeding them. Words can be taught to creatures by a learning computer (for verbs) or by repeating the name of the object while the creature is looking at it. After a creature understands language, the player can instruct their creature by typing in instructions, which the creature may choose to obey. A complete life cycle is modelled for the creatures – childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and senescence, each with their own particular needs. The gameplay is designed to foster an emotional bond between the player and their creatures. Rather than taking a scripted approach, ''Creatures'' series games were driven by detailed b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monograph
A monograph is a specialist work of writing (in contrast to reference works) or exhibition on a single subject or an aspect of a subject, often by a single author or artist, and usually on a scholarly subject. In library cataloging, ''monograph'' has a broader meaning—that of a nonserial publication complete in one volume (book) or a definite number of volumes. Thus it differs from a serial or periodical publication such as a magazine, academic journal, or newspaper. In this context only, books such as novels are considered monographs.__FORCETOC__ Academia The English term "monograph" is derived from modern Latin "monographia", which has its root in Greek. In the English word, "mono-" means "single" and "-graph" means "something written". Unlike a textbook, which surveys the state of knowledge in a field, the main purpose of a monograph is to present primary research and original scholarship ascertaining reliable credibility to the required recipient. This research is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fictional Dimensions
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying character (arts), individuals, events, or setting (narrative), places that are imagination, imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditional narrow sense, "fiction" refers to literature, written narratives in prose often referring specifically to novels, novellas, and short story, short stories. More broadly, however, fiction encompasses imaginary narratives expressed in any Media (communication), medium, including not just writings but also drama, live theatrical performances, films, television programs, radio dramas, comics, role-playing games, and video games. Definition Typically, the fictionality of a work is publicly marketed and so the audience expects the work to deviate in some ways from the real world rather than presenting, for instance, only factually accurate portrayals or character (arts), characters who ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canadian Science Fiction Novels
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''Canadian''. Canada is a multilingual and multicultural society home to people of groups of many different ethnic, religious, and national origins, with the majority of the population made up of Old World immigrants and their descendants. Following the initial period of French and then the much larger British colonization, different waves (or peaks) of immigration and settlement of non-indigenous peoples took place over the course of nearly two centuries and continue today. Elements of Indigenous, French, British, and more recent immigrant customs, languages, and religions have combined to form the culture of Canada, and thus a Canadian identity. Canada has also been strongly influenced by its linguistic, geographic, and ec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1984 Science Fiction Novels
Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). * January 10 ** The United States and the Vatican City, Vatican (Holy See) restore full diplomatic relations. ** The Victoria, Seychelles, Victoria Agreement is signed, institutionalising the Indian Ocean Commission. *January 24 – Steve Jobs launches the Macintosh 128K, Macintosh personal computer in the United States. February * February 3 ** Dr. John Buster and the research team at Harbor–UCLA Medical Center announce history's first embryo transfer from one woman to another, resulting in a live birth. ** STS-41-B: Space Shuttle Challenger, Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' is launched on the 10th Space Shuttle mission. * February 7 – Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered spac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1984 Canadian Novels
Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). * January 10 ** The United States and the Vatican (Holy See) restore full diplomatic relations. ** The Victoria Agreement is signed, institutionalising the Indian Ocean Commission. *January 24 – Steve Jobs launches the Macintosh personal computer in the United States. February * February 3 ** Dr. John Buster and the research team at Harbor–UCLA Medical Center announce history's first embryo transfer from one woman to another, resulting in a live birth. ** STS-41-B: Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' is launched on the 10th Space Shuttle mission. * February 7 – Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk. * February 8– 19 – The 1984 Winter Olympics are held in Sarajevo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spaceland (novel)
''Spaceland'' is a science fiction novel by American mathematician and computer scientist Rudy Rucker, and published in 2002 by Tor Books. In a tribute to Edwin Abbott's ''Flatland'', a classic mathematical fantasy about a 2-dimensional being (A. Square) who receives a surprise visit from a higher-dimensional sphere, Rudy Rucker's ''Spaceland'' describes the life of Joe Cube, an average, modern-day Silicon Valley hotshot who one day discovers the fourth dimension from an unexpected visitation. Plot summary Joe Cube is a high tech executive waiting for his company's IPO. On the New Year's Eve before the new millennium, trying to impress his wife Jena, he brings home a prototype of his company's new product (a TV screen that turns standard television broadcasting into a 3D image). It brings no warmth to their cooling marriage, but it does attract the attention of somebody else. Joe is suddenly contacted by a Momo, a woman from the fourth dimension she calls the All, of which our ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sphereland
''Sphereland: A Fantasy About Curved Spaces and an Expanding Universe'' is a 1965 translation of , a 1957 novel by Dionys Burger, and is a sequel to ''Flatland'', a novel by "A Square" (a pen name of Edwin Abbott Abbott). The novel expands upon the social and mathematical foundations on which ''Flatland'' is based. It is markedly different from the first novel in that it has a more prosaic ending and treatment of society. Plot summary The Circles (who are appointed as priests/leaders of Flatland due to their many sides, or an appearance thereof) do not take A Square's revelation about a third dimension to be accurate, and A Square is ostracized by his community. Then after some time, society becomes more open to the ideas of Spaceland and, overall, to change and advancement. However, when a prominent surveyor finds a Triangle with more than 180 degrees, he is fired from his job and generally considered a crackpot, since such a construction is not possible in Euclidean geometry. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flatterland
''Flatterland'' is a 2001 book written by mathematician and science popularizer Ian Stewart about non-Euclidean geometry. It was written as a sequel to ''Flatland'', an 1884 novel that discussed different dimensions. Plot summary Almost 100 years after A. (which we find out stands for Albert) Square's adventures that were related in ''Flatland'', his great-great-granddaughter, Victoria Line (Vikki), finds a copy of his book in her basement. This prompts her to invite a sphere from Spaceland to visit her, but instead she is visited by the "Space Hopper" (a character looking somewhat like the " Space Hopper" children's toy with a gigantic grin, horns and a spherical body). The Space Hopper, more than being able to move between Flatland and Spaceland, can travel to any space in the ''Mathiverse'', a set of all imaginable worlds. After showing Vikki higher dimensions, he begins showing her more modern theories, such as fractional dimensions and dimensions with isolated points. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jason Shiga
Jason Shiga (born 1976) is an American cartoonist who incorporates puzzles, mysteries and unconventional narrative techniques into his work. Early life Jason Shiga is from Oakland, California. His father, Seiji Shiga, was an animator who worked on the 1964 Rankin-Bass production ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer''. Jason Shiga was a pure mathematics major at the University of California at Berkeley, from which he graduated in 1998. Career Shiga is credited as the "Maze Specialist" for Issue #18 (Winter 2005/2006) of the literary journal ''McSweeney's Quarterly'', which features a solved maze on the front cover and a (slightly different) unsolved maze on the back. The title page of each story in the journal is headed by a maze segment labeled with numbers leading to the first pages of other stories. Shiga has also drawn and written several comics and illustrated features for ''Nickelodeon Magazine'', some of which feature his original creations, and some starring Nickelodeon cha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
