Margolin@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA (05/25/84)
From: Barry Margolin <Margolin@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA>
In V9 #99, Greg Skinner complained about the fact that up and down are
used in "Planiverse". That is because he thinks about a 2-D world by
laying it out on his table. In the book, all direction references are
made relative to a Planiverse resident. "Up" and "down" mean the same
thing to them as it does to us: towards the center of the planet.
Thus, even if you placed the 2-D world on the wall, your "up" wouldn't
necessarily correspond to the "up" of a resident of the 2-D world. One
thing to notice in the book: most of the time, references to lateral
directions on the Planiverse planet (whose name escapes me) are done
with "east" and "west", not "right" and "left".
barmar