On the off chance that you are pondering your own sanity over a more leisurely holiday period, I would like to tell you that you are not alone in considering such matters. I have started a new book, "Genius At Play: The Curious Mind of John Horton Conway" by Siobhan Roberts.
This is a great book for holiday reading if you enjoy:
- Reading about crazy eccentric people
- Learning how a genius mathematician thinks about problems
- Wrestling with the relationship between philosophy, mathematics and physics
Don't be afraid. Very few equations. Excerpt follows.
"So I had this great idea of using the notion of “double parallax” to see 4 dimensions. Your left eye’s picture and your right eye’s picture theoretically could differ not only by horizontal parallax but also by vertical parallax. That makes 4 positions, which would give your eyes the input they need to see in 4 dimensions. And what generated the vertical parallax was the helmet. I made it out of a crash helmet, cut various bits off, bolted on a visor, and put these army surplus periscopes in place. One of them moved my left eye diagonally downward to the middle of my chin, and the other moved my right eye diagonally up to the middle of my forehead. The net effect was that my eyes were displaced vertically, and to rather more than the usual horizontal displacement, about twice as much."
Roberts, Siobhan (2015-07-14). Genius At Play: The Curious Mind of John Horton Conway (Kindle Locations 1246-1253). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.