The Planiverse: Computer Contact With a Two-Dimensional World

Rating:
Summary: A superbly crafted tale of discovery and community
Review: Computer scientist, mathematician, and contributor to "Scientific American", A. K. Dewdney's The Planiverse: Computer Contact With A Two-Dimensional World is a superbly crafted tale of discovery and community with the two-dimensional civilization of Arde, first published in 1984 and now brought back into print by Copernicus Books. The setting is 1981 and in the computer lab of a large university a group of graduate students and their professor are hard at work on the departmental mainframe, graphically modeling an imaginary two dimensional world. The project is proceeding very well when one student suddenly notices that the world they are building on-screen is inhabited! Although a work of pure fiction, it incorporates sound mathematics and principles of computer science. The Planiverse delights the reader's imagination while serving as a cautionary tale about the difficulties of communication between one totally alien world to another.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: I encourage others to pick this book up. It's great for an inquisitive high schooler (as I was) or an adult.

Dewdney does an excellent job of pulling the reader into the story- one feels as if they are sitting there right next to the screen, waiting for the next contact.

Difficult to put down, and difficult to go back to reality afterwards.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: I encourage others to pick this book up. It's great for an inquisitive high schooler (as I was) or an adult.

Dewdney does an excellent job of pulling the reader into the story- one feels as if they are sitting there right next to the screen, waiting for the next contact.

Difficult to put down, and difficult to go back to reality afterwards.

Rating:
Summary: Simply Wow...
Review: I have to admit, I read this book primarily so that I could selfishly affirm what I thought of as my theory: that in two dimensions, gravity would be proportional to the inverse of distance, as opposed to the inverse square law we know and love. I was surprised and overwhelmed that Dewdney includes this observation as one among many, of which others are much more important. Dewdney crafts this discussion of two-dimensions by setting up a fictional university scenario and aside from addressing the implications of a 2D world, also adds the implications and disbelief that a discovery of this kind might cause on earth. The story is one for anyone who has thought about differences in dimension, and truly made me think about how simple, yet complex our world would seem to a four dimensional being. Dewdney even includes an appendix of distinct ramifications of two-dimensions on different fields of science. (Maybe the fact that every reviewer so far has given this book five stars means something... GO READ IT!)

Rating:
Summary: Computer science students and professors must read this!
Review: I read the older paperback version (with black and green) and a picture of YNDRD on the cover. I assume it is not too different from the reprinted version.

When I was a child, I used to draw Flatland style landscapes and imagine physical processes like erosion occurring. Only when I was halfway through this magical book did I recall this memory of my youth, some 33 years ago! I used to draw lots of 2-d drawings of fake biological creatures like sea anemones, so I was predisposed to like the book or at least its concept.

Yet I was disconcerted till I got about halfway through the book. I guess I found the 2-d world stifling and crazy, and stupid. But the more I read the more I marveled at Dewdney's inventiveness and his skill at both story-telling and technical detail.

DO READ THIS BOOK! It is truly spectacular science fiction. (At least I hope it is fiction! Ha ha ha)

The business about computer science professors and students getting distracted from their work rings a bell.... I too teach CS at a college though I haven't had these adventures.

Having praised the book deservedly, I want to point out a few things I didn't like. THough I liked the spiritual quest of YNDRD and thought that was truly neat, I felt Dewdney could have wrapped it up in a somewhat more satisfying manner. Also the intimations of Craine, the CS student who came back mysteriously to warn off the professor, were wasted. Why have that? It piqued curiosity to no purpose. My copy of the book must have missing pages or something.

Otherwise a great book!

Rating:
Summary: Delightful
Review: One of the greatest books of all-time. I don't want to over-sell it, so judge for yourselves. (heh) Seriously, this is probably the most complete fictional universe ever created. It reads like a dream and when it first came out (and I was a kid) I often wondered whether the events in the book had REALLY happened. It is that well constructed.

Before it originally went out of print I bought two extra copies so that I'd never be without it, I honestly suggest you read it, and if you like it at all - do the same. It will never leave your mind, and you'll be happy about that.

Rating:
Summary: Sufi allegory through the computer screen
Review: This astonishing book manages to be both a brilliant work of science fiction and an allegory of the search for truth of Islamic mystics or Sufis. This deeper level is well hidden, and many readers get immense pleasure from the book without even knowing it is there. The clues are to be found in the many Arabic words in the language of the Planiverse and in the fact that Yendred's quest ends in a shrine that is a square (the 2-dimensional equivalent of the cubic shrine - the Kaaba - that is at the centre of Islam). As Yendred is Dewdney spelt backwards (with Alice's speech defect which causes her to confuse W and R), one may deduce that the author is himself a Sufi seeker.

Rating:
Summary: An intersting look at a two-dimensional world
Review: This book is simply amazing. It tells the story ofYNDRD, a two-dimensional being who makes contact withpeople on Earth through a computer program based on a hypothetical 2-D world. The tale is written as a summary of the computer-aided correspondence between Prof. Dewdney and his colleagues and the so-called "planiverse", with excerpts of the dialogue as it was received on the computer print-out. Immense detail is given to the descriptions of the way of life on the two-dimensional planet, including technology, government and law, music, sports, science, and even religion. Religion was, in fact, one of the aspects which gave me extra admiration for the book and its author, because it explores not only the religion of the Nsana (as the flat people call themselves), but religion in general, giving insight into a scientific and somewhat objective view of religion. The story and its forays into alien culture are heightened in effect by the great illustrations, and the technical sections which go into the most detail about 2-D life. I say again, this book is simply amazing, and conclude with a recommendation to all interested in bizarre creatures, science, or just really good books.

Rating:
Summary: Are you sure this is all there is?
Review: When I was in high-school I had a very intelligent and immensely helpful English teacher, who taught me much of what writing skill I possess today. He came in highly excited one morning, to share with us about a new book he'd come across. Evidently, they had, through a computer, discovered an entirely new reality, that was two-dimensional! And this was an actual event, cutting edge stuff.

Well, a few days later, he came in, quite chagrined, to tell us that, as he read further through the book, he realized it was a work of fiction. But his description had been interesting enough to motivate me to read the book.

The Planiverse's reality is that real, and supported by that much scientific and mathematical principle- Dewdney has done his research, to bring us one of the most delightful what-ifs I've found. Imagine reality just like ours, but take out the third dimension. Everything is well supported, every area of life covered, and the drawings immensely helpful. You truly begin to feel for all the characters in the book. But it's not just an exercise in mathematical possibility. It is a rich story, telling of spiritual journey and insight, as Yendred travels to find his answers. And I still remember the ending as grippingly and eerily numinous, as we realize how closely the Planiverse and our Universe are connected, and how limited we are in comparison to the Eternal.

Rating:
Summary: Are you sure this is all there is?
Review: When I was in high-school I had a very intelligent and immensely helpful English teacher, who taught me much of what writing skill I possess today. He came in highly excited one morning, to share with us about a new book he'd come across. Evidently, they had, through a computer, discovered an entirely new reality, that was two-dimensional! And this was an actual event, cutting edge stuff.

Well, a few days later, he came in, quite chagrined, to tell us that, as he read further through the book, he realized it was a work of fiction. But his description had been interesting enough to motivate me to read the book.

The Planiverse's reality is that real, and supported by that much scientific and mathematical principle- Dewdney has done his research, to bring us one of the most delightful what-ifs I've found. Imagine reality just like ours, but take out the third dimension. Everything is well supported, every area of life covered, and the drawings immensely helpful. You truly begin to feel for all the characters in the book. But it's not just an exercise in mathematical possibility. It is a rich story, telling of spiritual journey and insight, as Yendred travels to find his answers. And I still remember the ending as grippingly and eerily numinous, as we realize how closely the Planiverse and our Universe are connected, and how limited we are in comparison to the Eternal.