Flatland

From Simulism

Author: Edwin A. Abbott

Summary: Flatland is the story of A. Square, an inhabitant from a 2-dimensional world called Flatland. We follow him on his journey through our 3-dimensional Spaceland, 1-dimensional Lineland and even 0-dimensional Pointland.

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Flatland isn't directly related to Simulism, as the four worlds that A. Square encounters aren't simulations (written in the 19th century, computers didn't even exist yet). It gives a nice explanation though of the difficulties with comprehending more dimensions than you are comprised of; in other words, it helps us to imagine a fourth spacial dimension.

Reading the book does help in understanding the 'world in a world' ideas of Simulism. It also provokes thought about the dimensionality of simulations. If we can run 2-dimensional simulations, it is not implausible that, if we would be living in a (3d) simulation, that the 'outside' would even have more dimensions.