''The Planiverse'' is a novel by

A. K. Dewdney Alexander Keewatin Dewdney (August 5, 1941 – March 9, 2024) was a Canadian mathematician, computer scientist, author, filmmaker, and conspiracy theorist. Dewdney was the son of Canadian artist and author Selwyn Dewdney and art therapist Irene D ...

, written in 1984 about a two-dimensional world.

Plot

In the spirit of

Edwin Abbott Abbott Edwin Abbott Abbott (20 December 1838 – 12 October 1926) was an English schoolmaster, theology, theologian, and Anglican priest, best known as the author of the novella ''Flatland'' (1884). Early life and education Edwin Abbott Abbott ...

's '' Flatland'', Dewdney and his computer science students simulate a two-dimensional world with a complex

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by Organism, organisms in interaction with their Biophysical environment, environment. The Biotic material, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and en ...

. To their surprise, they find their artificial 2D universe has somehow accidentally become a means of communication with an actual 2D world: Arde. They make a sort of "

telepathic Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic ...

" contact with "YNDRD", referred to by the students as Yendred, a highly philosophical Ardean, as he begins a journey across the western half, Punizla, of the single continent Ajem Kollosh to learn more about the spiritual beliefs of the people of the East, Vanizla. Yendred mistakes Dewdney's class for "spirits" and takes great interest in communicating with them. The students and narrator communicate with Yendred by typing on the keyboard; Yendred's answers appear on the computer's printout. The name Yendred (or "Yendwed", as pronounced by one of the students, who has a speech impediment) is simply "Dewdney" reversed. Written as a travelogue, Yendred's journey through the West takes him through several cities. He visits the Punizlan Institute for Technology and Science, where Arde's technology is explored in great detail. For example, all houses are underground, so as not to be demolished by the periodic 2D rivers; nails are useless for attaching two objects, so tape and glue are used instead; most Ardean creatures cannot have deuterostomic digestive tracts since they would split into two; even games such as Go have one-dimensiona
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analogues. An appendix explains various other aspects of two-dimensional science and technology which could not fit into the main story. The underlying allegory culminates in Yendred's arrival at the watershed of the continent and the planet's only building above ground, where he at last finds Drabk, an Ardean who professes "knowledge of the Beyond", and teaches Yendred to fly. Yendred finds that to keep contact with Earth is no longer of benefit, and contact with Arde is lost.

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 A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...

in 1979 called ''Two-Dimensional Science and Technology''. This was reviewed by

Martin Gardner Martin Gardner (October 21, 1914May 22, 2010) was an American popular mathematics and popular science writer with interests also encompassing magic, scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literatureespecially the writin ...

in his July 1980 "

Mathematical Games A mathematical game is a game whose rules, strategies, and outcomes are defined by clear mathematics, mathematical parameters. Often, such games have simple rules and match procedures, such as tic-tac-toe and dots and boxes. Generally, mathemati ...

" column in ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Pri ...

'', 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 A frame story (also known as a frame tale, frame narrative, sandwich narrative, or intercalation) is a literary technique that serves as a companion piece to a story within a story, where an introductory or main narrative sets the stage either fo ...

in which to display the scientific and technical features from these previous works, as well as an

allegory As a List of narrative techniques, literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a wikt:narrative, narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political signi ...

for his search for a reality deeper than that of scientific enquiry, and his subsequent conversion to Sufiism.

Reception

Dave Langford reviewed ''The Planiverse'' for ''

White Dwarf A white dwarf is a Compact star, stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very density, dense: in an Earth sized volume, it packs a mass that is comparable to the Sun. No nuclear fusion takes place i ...

'' #55, and stated that "This delightful book will be inspiring 2D game scenarios any second now." ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...

'' considered it "an ingenious intellectual exercise—amusing, edifying, sometimes tedious" THE PLANIVERSE: Computer Contact with a Two-Dimensional World
reviewed at ''

''; published March 16, 1984; retrieved June 5, 2017 At

Tor.com ''Reactor'', formerly ''Tor.com'', is an online science fiction and fantasy magazine published by Tor Books, a division of Macmillan Publishers. The magazine publishes articles, reviews, original short fiction, re-reads and commentary on specul ...

, Jason Shiga found it to be a "tour de force followup" to ''Flatland'', and found the appendix to be the "most impressive section" of the book.Revealing ''Demon'': Volume 3, and Five Other Sci-Fi Books About Math
by Jason Shiga; published September 15, 2016; retrieved June 5, 2017

References

External links

Author's bibliographyKontrol
An online action game and 2D universe simulation inspired by ''The Planiverse'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Planiverse, The 1984 Canadian novels 1984 science fiction novels Canadian science fiction novels Fictional dimensions Mathematics fiction books Novels about mathematics Speculative evolution

Plot

Development

Reception

See also

References

Further reading

External links