A.K. Dewdney and Planiverse
George II Lenzer
Has anyone here ever read the book Planiverse, by Alexander
Dewdney? I just finished reading it and would like to know
if it was a hoax or if it really happened. Any info on this
subject would be greatly appreciated. The book, itself, is
about computer contact with a 2D universe through an
inhabitant of the 2D planet Arde. The being's name is YNDRD
or Yendred as the professor and his students began to call
him. It was a very facinating book, but I would really like
to know if there was ever anything else written about YNDRD
ARDE or the inhabitants of the 2D planiverse? Has Dewdney
ever mentioned anything about it again in any of his other
writings? And lastly, is there an E-mail address where I
can reach A.K. Dewdney himself? The only thing I know
about his location is that when he wrote the book he lived
in Canada and taught at the University of Western Ontario in
the Computer Sciences dept.
THNX,
GIIL
--
Generation X is a LIE! Don't believe the hype!
Life still exists in the 20-something crowd.
-Sensible-
Matt McIrvin
George II Lenzer <an...@cleveland.Freenet.Edu> wrote:
>
>Has anyone here ever read the book Planiverse, by Alexander
>Dewdney? I just finished reading it and would like to know
>if it was a hoax or if it really happened.
The book is fiction; inventing Arde was a longtime hobby of Dewdney's,
and many correspondents got in on the act. Dewdney credits his
collaborators in the long appendix, and also talked about some of the
many ideas in _The Planiverse_ in his earlier Scientific American
articles (this was in the 1980s; I don't remember precisely when).
_The Planiverse_ has a frame-story in which a computer simulation of a
2D world at Dewdney's university makes spooky synchronistic contact
with an actual 2D world. It was written in the same spirit as the
fictional accounts of his own adventures that Martin Gardner sometimes
inserted in his Scientific American column (in the space later taken
over by Douglas Hofstadter and then Alexander Dewdney and others);
once, after Gardner made up a religious cult called the Church of the
Fourth Dimension (loosely based on the work of some 19th- and early
20th-century spiritualists), some people wrote him asking how they
could join.
Dewdney seems to be as good a troller as Gardner.
--
Matt 01234567 <-- Indent-o-Meter
McIrvin ^ Harnessing tab damage for peaceful ends!
Nix
: Has anyone here ever read the book Planiverse, by Alexander
: Dewdney? I just finished reading it and would like to know
: if it was a hoax or if it really happened. Any info on this
I imagine it was a 'hoax'; well, a thought experiment then :-)
: subject would be greatly appreciated. The book, itself, is
: about computer contact with a 2D universe through an
: inhabitant of the 2D planet Arde. The being's name is YNDRD
: or Yendred as the professor and his students began to call
: him. It was a very facinating book, but I would really like
: to know if there was ever anything else written about YNDRD
: ARDE or the inhabitants of the 2D planiverse? Has Dewdney
: ever mentioned anything about it again in any of his other
: writings? And lastly, is there an E-mail address where I
I think this is the only one; ask the author himself.
: can reach A.K. Dewdney himself? The only thing I know
: about his location is that when he wrote the book he lived
: in Canada and taught at the University of Western Ontario in
: the Computer Sciences dept.
I've seen him post here before; damned if I can remember his net ID
tho'.... You might like to watch sci.physics and sci.astro; he should
pop up again soon. Or you could look in the archives (if there are any
for this group)
--
---------------------------------------------------
Nix (Nick Alcock) - OS/2 advocate, UNIX advocate, Losedoze hater
Geek Code under preparation
Matt McIrvin
>The being's name is YNDRD
>or Yendred as the professor and his students began to call
>him.
Notice also that "Yendred" is almost "Dewdney" spelled backwards.
David Cooke
In a previous article, an...@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (George II Lenzer) says:
>
>Has anyone here ever read the book Planiverse, by Alexander
>Dewdney? I just finished reading it and would like to know
>It was a very facinating book, but I would really like
>to know if there was ever anything else written about YNDRD
>ARDE or the inhabitants of the 2D planiverse? Has Dewdney
>ever mentioned anything about it again in any of his other
>writings?
He has mentioned the Planiverse in The Armchair Universe, a collection of
his Scientific American columns, in the chapter called "One-Dimensional
Computers." It was about constructing a smaller crossover with NAND gates
that uses less than 12 (there is a figure with a crossover with that many).
>And lastly, is there an E-mail address where I
>can reach A.K. Dewdney himself? The only thing I know
>about his location is that when he wrote the book he lived
>in Canada and taught at the University of Western Ontario in
>the Computer Sciences dept.
I don't know his e-mail address (I would like that too!), but at the time
of the release of the New Turing Omnibus: 66 Excursions in Computer
Science he was still at the U. of Western Ontario.
david
joa...@ceecee.lahn.de
>Dewdney? I just finished reading it and would like to know
Hi, George
If you really did enjoy reading _Planiverse_ you might want to have a
look at "Flatland. A romance of Many Dimensions" by Edwin A.Abbott.
The book was written in 1884 and describes journeys into worlds of
different dimensions. While it is not as technical as Dewdney哀 it哀
fun to read and a part of sci-fi-history.
Joachim
Erik Max Francis
> In article <3bvoju$9...@usenet.ins.cwru.edu>,
> George II Lenzer <an...@cleveland.Freenet.Edu> wrote:
>
> >The being's name is YNDRD
> >or Yendred as the professor and his students began to call
> >him.
>
> Notice also that "Yendred" is almost "Dewdney" spelled backwards.
And YNDRD backwards looks almost like "Dr. Dewdney" (I don't know if
he's a Ph.D., though).
Wow, I never thought about spelling Yendred backwards. Either way,
_Plainverse_ was great fun, even if it was obvious that it was a joke.
Erik Max Francis, &tSftDotIotE ...!uuwest!alcyone!max m...@alcyone.darkside.com
San Jose, CA ... GIGO, Hg, Omega, Universe, Psi ... ICBM: 37 20 N 121 53 W _
H.3`S,3,P,3$S,#$Q,C`Q,3,P,3$S,#$Q,3`Q,3,P,C$Q,#(Q.#`-"C`- ftmfbs kmmfa mc2 / \
Omnia quia sunt, lumina sunt. ("All things that are, are lights.") -><- \_/
Michael Seaton
>And YNDRD backwards looks almost like "Dr. Dewdney" (I don't know if
>he's a Ph.D., though).
>Wow, I never thought about spelling Yendred backwards. Either way,
>_Plainverse_ was great fun, even if it was obvious that it was a joke.
Actually, IIRC, there's a point in the book where one of his students
lisps 'Yendred' into 'Yendwed' (:
-Michael Seaton(mse...@hookup.net)