Flatland
by Edwin Abbott Abbott · first published 1884
47% recommend53% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Short, entertaining story about a 2D world that makes higher dimensions easy to picture, while satirizing Victorian class hierarchy. Suits readers without a math background, and kids curious about geometry.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, though written in 1884, is still considered useful in thinking about multiple dimensions. It is also seen as a satirical depiction of Victorian society and its hierarchies. A square, who is a resident of the two-dimensional Flatland, dreams of the one-dimensional Lineland. He attempts to convince the monarch of Lineland of the possibility of another dimension, but the monarch cannot see outside the line. The square is then visited himself by a Sphere from three-dimensional Spaceland, who must show the square Spaceland before he can conceive it. As more d
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…Foote The Civil War: A Narrative Maurois Disraeli Twain Life on the Mississippi Spector Admiral of the New Empire, The Life and Career of George Dewey Cardwell The Norton History of Technology Abbott Flatland, A Romance of Many Dimensions Meyer & Brysac Tournament of Shaddows, The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Central Asia Doughty Travels in Arabia Deserta Lefevre The Golden Flood Massie Dreadnought,…
on “PG's Rarely Asked Questions” ↗I'm not going to self-nominate myself as 'bright', but I liked these 3 books when I was 14ish: What do you care what other people think? by Richard Feynman. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. Flatland, by Edwin Abbott.
on “What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?” ↗For a - very - humourous social critic related to the theme, I highly recommend: Flatland, by Edwin Abbott. A book from the 18. cen. with very actual insights to it.
on “Can Life Exist in 2 and 1 Dimensions?” ↗I'll echo that. Flatland was a great read. http://www.amazon.com/Annotated-Flatland-Romance-Many-Dimens... The above is the version I read with a ton of great annotations and stories about the author Edwin A. Abbott. I'd highly…
on “Xkcd Makes 4D Miegakure the Most-Sought Indie Game” ↗Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein Flatland, by Edwin Abbott Gang Leader for a Day, by Sudhir Venkatesh The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan
on “Ask HN: Books that change your way of thinking?” ↗I've just finished reading Flatland by Edwin Abbott, a really good read in which a Square from Flatland (a 2-D land) gets pulled up into Spaceland (3-D land) and then down into Lineland (1-D land). This is Wolfenstein in Lineland.
on “Wolfenstein 1D” ↗…find some of the best sci-fi. Off the top of my head, Asimov, Dick, Bradbury, Clarke, Gibson, Banks, Egan, all wrote some of their best work in short form. And, just thinking about really early stuff, 'Flatland' by Edwin Abbott is another you should really take a look at. If you want to try any recent stuff, Alastair Reynolds and China Miéville are both excellent authors. edit - oh, and just read everything…
on “Beginnings of Science Fiction” ↗…Clock of the Long Now, by Stewart Brand - for the concepts of deep time and the long now; appreciating a sense of how we experience time and our place in history [See also: Time and the Art of Living] Flatland, by Edwin A. Abbott - creative parable that's very helpful for conceptualizing abstract concepts of topology and higher dimensions Thinking in Systems, A Primer, by Donella Meadows - great introduction…
on “Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?” ↗Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott is a nice little book. Abbott blends planar geometry and reality brilliantly. For example, every planar geometry object is a member of the flatland and…
on “Ask HN: Books that blend math and fiction” ↗The "old-school" exposition of live in 2D, 1D, and then 4D in fictional form is in the novel Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott Abbott. An entertaining read, mixing maths and social critique of Victorian class society (women are line segments, men are polygons - the more vertices,…
on “John Conway” ↗"Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions" by Edwin A. Abbott. > Written pseudonymously by "A Square", the book used the fictional two-dimensional world of Flatland to comment on the hierarchy of Victorian culture,…
on “Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?” ↗This is fun! Reminds me of the first time I read Flatland, by Edwin A. Abbott as a kid, and spent much time thinking about what it would be like to move around in a 2d world!
on “MAR1D: First-Person Mario” ↗Here are a few of mine: Flatland by Edwin Abbott - if it doesn't break your brain thinking about seeing in shadows of reality, and never being able to all of anything at once, you need to read it again A Brief History of Time by Stephen…
on “Ask HN: What book has been most influential in your life?” ↗…https://www.datapacrat.com/Opinion/Reciprocality/r0/index.ht... - Teaches the concept of Mappers and Packers, I'm a mapper, and I've worked with packers, once I knew this, and used it to help bridge the gap. Flatland - Edwin A. Abbott - A bridge towards higher dimensional thinking from back in elementary school. The Boy's Second Book of Radio and Electronics - Morgan, 1957. - https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Technology/T...…
on “Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?” ↗Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884) by Edwin Abbott Abbott
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books or essays written at least 100 years ago?” ↗