FLATLAND
A Romance of Many Dimensions
"Upward, not Northward!"
The Essence of the Plane
Imagine an infinite sheet of paper. No up or down—only east, south, west, north.
All residents are two-dimensional polygons sliding across the sheet, never escaping the plane. This is Flatland.
Our Protagonist
Meet the Square. A respected lawyer and gentleman, middle class in Flatland. He lives a calm life until one night changes everything…
Inhabitants & Classes
A rigorously stratified society where side count is destiny. The more angles, the higher the rank.
Social Hierarchy
The Law of Nature
Isosceles Triangle (Soldier/Worker)
Sharp angles, sharper tempers. Laborers and soldiers with low intellect but high force.
Equilateral Triangle (Merchant)
Balanced angles, even tempers. Respected merchants who stabilize society.
Square (Professional)
Lawyers, doctors, gentlemen. Our narrator is among them.
Circle (Priesthood)
Top caste. Infinite angles—perfection and divinity.
Domestic Life
In a world of only length and width, what does a house look like? For safety, Flatland architecture forbids sharp corners—pentagons only.
A Flatland Home
Typical pentagonal architecture
"By law, all houses must be pentagons. The wide west door is for men; the narrow east door is for women. Guards outside maintain order."
The Art of Sight
How do we recognize each other on the same plane? We see not shapes but lines, relying on fog intensity to perceive depth.
The Art of Sight
"In Flatland, recognition is an art. Fog density reveals depth; we construct shape in the mind."
The Analogy
Understanding the Unseen
Point (0D)
Line (1D)
Square (2D)
Cube (3D)
Tesseract (4D)
Just as a Cube is a stack of Squares, a Hypercube is a stack of Cubes.
Gospel of the Third Dimension
Acquire the Knowledge
"To the Inhabitants of SPACE IN GENERAL: And H.C. IN PARTICULAR, This Work is Dedicated by a Humble Native of Flatland."
PRICE: ONE PENNY / OR EQUIVALENT CURRENCY
Explore More Dimensions
"Do not be content with your plane. Look upward, outward."
The Three-Body Problem
三体
If Flatland awed you, the ‘two-dimensional foil’ in Three-Body shows dimensional annihilation.
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
科学革命的结构
A paradigm shift is the square’s leap from 2D to 3D—how science breaks its boundaries.
Thinking, Fast and Slow
思考，快与慢
Flatlanders trust “what you see is all there is.” Learn to use System 2 like the Sphere.