From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Fri Jul 05 2002 - 02:37:28 MDT
On Fri, Jul 05, 2002 at 11:14:14AM +1000, Damien Broderick wrote:
> A pal writes:
>
> < Greg Egan has a vital correction to his novel _Diaspora_,
> whose 17th chapter laughably refers to `Poincare's rotational "pole" --
> the two-dimensional sphere on the hypersurface that stayed fixed in space
> as the star rotated.' The author's website warns that this is in fact an
> unlikely situation in 5-dimensional space, and that it's more probable
> that there would be `two single-point rotational poles, as in 3
> dimensions.' >
>
> I knew you'll all want this news rushed to the list as swiftly as possible.
Ah! I have been disturbed by that section ever since I read it the first
time. I have been trying to visualize the pole and rotation with no
success. I always assumed I was wrong and Egan right - the dangers of
believing authorities.
If it is a point, then it is also more likely that they could find the
transmuter artefact; looking through a two-sphere on Poincare would
still be heavy work.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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