Where Do Abstractions Come From?
Essay 4 Where Do Abstractions Come From? Introduction: The Tesseract Problem We cannot visualize a four-dimensional object. But we can see its shadow – a three-dimensional projection that preserves some of the original structure while losing the dimension that makes it what it is. We can study the shadow, rotate it, measure it. We can learn real things from it. But the projection is irreversible. No amount of studying the shadow will let us reconstruct the object that cast it. ...