Madness on the Other Side
There are science fiction writers whose "predictions" of modern-age inventions have come true. Jules Verne predicted video conferencing and submarines. Isaac Asimov predicted robots and artificial intelligence. Arthur C. Clarke predicted artificial satellites and portable music players - what we now know as MP3 players or iPods or whatever else you crazy kids use. He also predicted the Mobius Belt. (And this introduction defines the word "understatement.")
Well, okay, the Mobius belt isn't an "invention." It's an incredibly abstract concept that is somehow allowed by the laws of nature. In fact, it's such an anomaly that I'll have to write my ideas from bottom-up: the Mobius belt is a huge spoiler for what's about to come.
Two dimensional objects have two sides: think paper, wall, door. In fact, every object we come across is tangible across all three dimensions. We can't imagine a cube having no height, for example, or a paper having no other side.
But this is exactly what a Mobius belt is notorious for. It has only one side. It's crazy. It's madness. But it exists, and you can see it happening.
Take a strip of paper and create a good ol' loop or ring. Run a pen along one side, starting at any point. Do not lift the pen until you finish where you started.
The parts of your loop marked with ink can be called Side One. The unmarked side is Side Two. Unloop your paper, and there are two distinct sides.
Keeping this in mind, take another strip of paper. Twist it once, and loop it in on itself. Run your pen on the loop just a before.
If the inked side is Side 1, where is Side 2?
Unwind the loop if that helps. But there's no Side 2, is there? That loop was a one-dimensional object, wasn't it?
You could try to cheat your way out. Create the two sides before creating the twisted loop. In that case, though, you get the scenario where you lifted your pen at some point. You didn't complete your line. Tear your loop at any point (because loops have no beginnings and no ends) and you'll see that it looks like you went some part of the way before you gave up.
Has your mind exploded yet?
Because the fun has just begun.
A story written by Arthur C. Clarke, "The Wall of Darkness," talks of a planet around a far-off star. It's habitable around the equator. Go too far north, and the heat is insurmountable. Too far south, you'll freeze to death. (I figured out this planet's axis and orientation around its star some time ago when I read this story for the first time. I can't remember it now.)
Now, there are kingdoms on this planet, and a dark wall - the titular Wall of Darkness - to the south. Our protagonist is intrigued by it, but no one talks about the wall, and no one encourages curiosity about the wall.
No one knows what's beyond it. Some say there's a raging inferno. Some say the wall is a defense against people on the other side, who are enemies. Still others think there's madness beyond the wall.
Our protagonist is helped by his best friend and a blind man to investigate. The wall is unapproachable even by light - that's why it's so dark. It's untouchable and indestructible. So our protagonist creates a scaffolding and climbs the wall with the intention to traverse it and find out for himself what the deal is.
The best friend becomes the observer watching the protagonist's retreating back. The protagonist travels with the sun behind him as a marker of his direction.
As the protagonist walks forward, the sun behind him seems to lower progressively. At one point, it just sets, and the protagonist sees a light ahead. He keeps walking in the same direction, thinking he's approaching the other side. The sun keeps rising ahead of him and he sees two figures on the ground. His best friend and the blind man.
He's back where he started.
At no point during his journey did the protagonist turn around. His friend confirms seeing his retreating figure and adds that at one point, he disappeared. A few moments later, the friend sees an approaching figure: that of the protagonist.
The story ends with the blind man explaining what they had experienced. It's the same thing we called a Mobius belt, but...not quite.
Yes, it is possible to have an object with only one side. However, that kind of object can only be understood by us humans using analogies. The paper-loop Mobius belt is one analogy. The wall is also an analogy. That shape - that object - can only be truly be grasped by the people who built it: its physics, math, geometry. Our best hope is to just try to comprehend the analogies.
And now for my favourite part.
It's an impactful story for sure. For some time after I'd read it, I would think about the planet that has the oddest of climates, what it might look like with that weird wall...
...and what would that wall itself look like from space?
In my musings, I realized:
Oh my God. There is madness on the other side of the wall!
Literature loves its metaphors. A wall could really just be the story that gets its readers thinking, going crazy trying to understand what just happened. At its simplest, this is what happens: There's an object. Protagonist explores the object. Object turns out to be incomprehensible.
And what happens when you try to comprehend the incomprehensible?
Madness.
Well, okay, the Mobius belt isn't an "invention." It's an incredibly abstract concept that is somehow allowed by the laws of nature. In fact, it's such an anomaly that I'll have to write my ideas from bottom-up: the Mobius belt is a huge spoiler for what's about to come.
Two dimensional objects have two sides: think paper, wall, door. In fact, every object we come across is tangible across all three dimensions. We can't imagine a cube having no height, for example, or a paper having no other side.
But this is exactly what a Mobius belt is notorious for. It has only one side. It's crazy. It's madness. But it exists, and you can see it happening.
Take a strip of paper and create a good ol' loop or ring. Run a pen along one side, starting at any point. Do not lift the pen until you finish where you started.
The parts of your loop marked with ink can be called Side One. The unmarked side is Side Two. Unloop your paper, and there are two distinct sides.
Keeping this in mind, take another strip of paper. Twist it once, and loop it in on itself. Run your pen on the loop just a before.
If the inked side is Side 1, where is Side 2?
Unwind the loop if that helps. But there's no Side 2, is there? That loop was a one-dimensional object, wasn't it?
You could try to cheat your way out. Create the two sides before creating the twisted loop. In that case, though, you get the scenario where you lifted your pen at some point. You didn't complete your line. Tear your loop at any point (because loops have no beginnings and no ends) and you'll see that it looks like you went some part of the way before you gave up.
Has your mind exploded yet?
Because the fun has just begun.
A story written by Arthur C. Clarke, "The Wall of Darkness," talks of a planet around a far-off star. It's habitable around the equator. Go too far north, and the heat is insurmountable. Too far south, you'll freeze to death. (I figured out this planet's axis and orientation around its star some time ago when I read this story for the first time. I can't remember it now.)
Now, there are kingdoms on this planet, and a dark wall - the titular Wall of Darkness - to the south. Our protagonist is intrigued by it, but no one talks about the wall, and no one encourages curiosity about the wall.
No one knows what's beyond it. Some say there's a raging inferno. Some say the wall is a defense against people on the other side, who are enemies. Still others think there's madness beyond the wall.
Our protagonist is helped by his best friend and a blind man to investigate. The wall is unapproachable even by light - that's why it's so dark. It's untouchable and indestructible. So our protagonist creates a scaffolding and climbs the wall with the intention to traverse it and find out for himself what the deal is.
The best friend becomes the observer watching the protagonist's retreating back. The protagonist travels with the sun behind him as a marker of his direction.
As the protagonist walks forward, the sun behind him seems to lower progressively. At one point, it just sets, and the protagonist sees a light ahead. He keeps walking in the same direction, thinking he's approaching the other side. The sun keeps rising ahead of him and he sees two figures on the ground. His best friend and the blind man.
He's back where he started.
At no point during his journey did the protagonist turn around. His friend confirms seeing his retreating figure and adds that at one point, he disappeared. A few moments later, the friend sees an approaching figure: that of the protagonist.
The story ends with the blind man explaining what they had experienced. It's the same thing we called a Mobius belt, but...not quite.
Yes, it is possible to have an object with only one side. However, that kind of object can only be understood by us humans using analogies. The paper-loop Mobius belt is one analogy. The wall is also an analogy. That shape - that object - can only be truly be grasped by the people who built it: its physics, math, geometry. Our best hope is to just try to comprehend the analogies.
And now for my favourite part.
It's an impactful story for sure. For some time after I'd read it, I would think about the planet that has the oddest of climates, what it might look like with that weird wall...
...and what would that wall itself look like from space?
In my musings, I realized:
Oh my God. There is madness on the other side of the wall!
Literature loves its metaphors. A wall could really just be the story that gets its readers thinking, going crazy trying to understand what just happened. At its simplest, this is what happens: There's an object. Protagonist explores the object. Object turns out to be incomprehensible.
And what happens when you try to comprehend the incomprehensible?
Madness.
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