Mandelbrot sets are only 2-dimensional, though. The author could have used a Mandelbulb.
Like this. (Spoilers for the movie “Annihilation”.)
Rotating a 2d being in 3d space would be trippy and probably lethal. A 2d being would have it’s entire existence on a specific fixed 2d plane cutting through space- by rotating it, you’ve completely redefined the entire plane, and everything that the creature knew about and had built would be permanently lost.
Theoretically if you rotated the creature 180°, it could again perceive things from its own world, though in a very different way. But you’d think a sufficiently smart 2 dimensional creature could come to recognize that it was indeed the same world just mirrored.
Though it’s possible this creature’s chemistry would have a “handedness” and it could no longer metabolize the nutrients that exist in that world.
Hmmm, yeah I’d imagine chemistry would develop a specific handedness. It’s a bizarre thing to think about
obligatory Breaking bad
This is actually the same mentality as to why I don’t kill bugs
Isn’t this what HP Lovecraft wrote about?
Lovecraft wrote more about how finding out about new, unknowable information and understanding (or attempting to understand) can drive someone insane. So similar, but without the physical aspect (although tbf he also used physical transformation as an idea too, like people turning into fish monsters).
The fourth dimension is super interesting to think about. A person meddling in the 2d plane eould appear to the 2d world as a flat mass suddenly warping into their world… And a 4d creature would similarly warp into our world outta nowhere as a inexplicable mass because we are unable to view the creature, in it’s entirety, in our plane of existence.
You might like this video on a 4d physics engine
That reminds me of the Action Lab video on a 4D ball.
Cliff notes on 3 body problem
Great book written in the late 1800s called “Flatland” tackled this shit pretty well. Still a great read, still messes with your head.
This isn’t really a book about being 2d, rather creatures being flattened by a stars gravity thar they live in.
It’s called Dragon’s Egg And was a really tripped read.
The plot is essentially a group of scientists go study a neutron star with some advanced tech (related to what we have now) that helps them weather some gravity problems. They discover that the star is inhabited by creatures made from nuclei bound by the strong force. They try to communicate with these tiny sesame sized creatures, but 1 of their days = 0.2 seconds human time… so communication is tricky.
Not sure about “great” but it’s definitely a book. lol
I mean, it is a fun, thorough thought experiment about life in a world with a different amount of dimensions, done in the 19th century, that still holds up today and not many people have improved upon. I would say that’s better than good.
