John Gray, ‘The
Immortalization Commission: Science and the Strange Quest to Cheat Death’, 2011:
“....Lenin's tomb was designed by AV Shchusev, an architect
involved in the constructivist movement and influenced by Kazimir Malevich, the
founder of suprematism. Malevich viewed abstract geometrical forms as the
embodiment of a higher reality. Believing that Lenin's cube-shaped mausoleum
represented a "fourth dimension" where death did not exist, he
suggested that Lenin's followers keep a cube in their homes. The proposal was
adopted by the party, and cubic shrines to the dead leader were set up in
"Lenin corners" in offices and factories. Shchusev's design reflected
Malevich's belief in the occult properties of the cube. At a meeting of the funeral
commission in January 1924, Shchusev declared: "Vladimir Ilyich is eternal
. . . In architecture the cube is eternal. Let the mausoleum derive from a
cube." He then sketched a design made of three cubes, which the commission
accepted....”
Matt Parker, ‘Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension:
A Mathematician's Journey Through Narcissistic Numbers, Optimal Dating
Algorithms, at Least Two Kinds of Infinity, and More’, 2014:
“....As humans, we live in a three-dimensional world. We are
3D creatures, and as a 3D creature I find no concept as terrifying as the
notion of encountering a 4D creature. Such an organism would be god-like to us
and, were it the slightest bit malicious, it could torment and destroy us at
will. Humans are not equipped physically or mentally to deal with a fourth
dimension, so any higher-dimensional being would have the ultimate tactical
advantage.
There’s a reasonably accurate description of an
interdimensional fight in the comic 1963 – Tales of the Uncanny (published in
1993). The story ‘It Came from … Higher Space!’ features a 4D protagonist
attacking a 3D victim. It was written by comic-book legend Alan Moore (author
of Watchmen, V for Vendetta, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and many
others) and the monster appears as a collection of hovering, disjointed body
parts which move and morph around in the air. It starts as a series of wisps in
mid-air which balloon out into 3D and are described as being almost like
doughnuts made of meat. Not appealing.
We can explain the disjointed nature of the 4D monster by
looking at what would happen if we, as 3D creatures, attacked a 2D creature.
Being 3D means that the space we operate in extends in three different
directions: side to side, backwards and forwards, and up and down. A 2D
creature can move only in two directions: it’s constrained to a flat surface.
Let’s imagine a hypothetical creature who is completely flat – a hypoflatical,
say – living in a completely thin universe, so thin that it would appear as a
piece of paper does to us. We could loom as close to it in an up or down
direction as we want and, because the hypoflatical has no concept of a third
dimension, it would have no idea we were there. The third dimension provides
perfect cover. Time to mount our own terrifying attack on a lesser-dimensional
being – and all it takes is a move in the third direction into its
two-dimensional world....”
"Time passes more slowly in that dimension, so take these sudokus."
Artist: Edward Steed, The New Yorker, June 2016
