October 16, 2008

4-D Space in Virtual Worlds

This is just to stimulate the imagination — an experiment with 4-D space in a 3-D virtual world:

Crooked House

At landing, read the info board; and then click to be transported into the house.

Inside, as you move from from room to room, the house will bend around you in simulated 4 dimensions. So, you will be walking as if through a series of continuous rooms — on a floor at one moment — then through a door and onto a ceiling the next moment. The 4-D effect is known as a tesseract:



Trying to return to the starting point can become a math game if you want it to. "If you go four times in one direction, you end up back where you started; also, if you make three ninety degree turns, you come back where you started," according the creator of the house, Seifert Surface in an interview with Hamlet Au: "— And He Rezzed a Crooked House," New World Notes.

Be careful. If you are not the focal point in the house, then sit down. Seated, you will become like an object moving along with the fluctuations while someone else is exploring. Otherwise, you might find yourself in the ether when a part of the house moves away. Likewise, if you take a friend with you, tell your friend sit while you explore.

To explore, just press a button on a table in the first room to make yourself the focal point.



Remarkably, the house is a rather early creation in SL. It is already two years old. So, it is very advanced (or most of us are quite retarded). It really can simulate the imagination and provide some motivation.