we are seeing multidimensional cross sections of them, which give them such an otherworldly appearance
Accurate or not I’ve always liked Vonnegut’s description of the viewpoint from the 4th dimension to the 3rd:
“The creatures can see where each star has been and where it is going, so that the heavens are filled with rarefied, luminous spaghetti. And Tralfamadorians don’t see human beings as two-legged creatures, either. They see them as great millepedes—“with babies’ legs at one end and old people’s legs at the other,” says Billy Pilgrim.
That description presumes our temporal dimension is their fourth spatial dimension though. It also makes meaningful interaction basically impossible.
If it works more like Flatland and we have a shared temporal dimension then they’re simply able to perceive us, inside and out, from what we would consider every direction simultaneously. In much the same way that we can see the inside and full circumference of a two dimensional circle.
They sound like they would make for invaluable medical staff, at least where diagnosis was concerned. Who needs a CT scan, they can just see a tumor, a messed up spine vertebrae, or anything else, plain as day.
Accurate or not I’ve always liked Vonnegut’s description of the viewpoint from the 4th dimension to the 3rd:
“The creatures can see where each star has been and where it is going, so that the heavens are filled with rarefied, luminous spaghetti. And Tralfamadorians don’t see human beings as two-legged creatures, either. They see them as great millepedes—“with babies’ legs at one end and old people’s legs at the other,” says Billy Pilgrim.
That description presumes our temporal dimension is their fourth spatial dimension though. It also makes meaningful interaction basically impossible.
If it works more like Flatland and we have a shared temporal dimension then they’re simply able to perceive us, inside and out, from what we would consider every direction simultaneously. In much the same way that we can see the inside and full circumference of a two dimensional circle.
They sound like they would make for invaluable medical staff, at least where diagnosis was concerned. Who needs a CT scan, they can just see a tumor, a messed up spine vertebrae, or anything else, plain as day.
Woah