MAM2000 (Essays/SciAm)

I am indebted to David Laidlaw for an explanation of HYPERCUBE. The version of the program I shall describe represents a hypercube by showing only its vertexes and edges. Moreover, the view the program generates does not necessarily depict a cube inside a cube; instead the view depends on how HYPERCUBE is implemented and on how it is run. Every time the hypercube in the program is rotated the vertexes swing into new positions and a new, oddly confusing view of the object results. With continued experimentation, however, the views begin to make a strange kind of sense, and one feels on the threshold of something awesomely spacious and inviting.

The HYPERCUBE program has been broken down into the following parts: