Truth Is a Weird Shape — dotdotok

Suppose hovering about 3-or-however-many feet in front of you is some asymmetric 3D object, maybe about a cubic foot in size (you don't need to do the math).

Oh, also, cover one eye, depth-perception is cheating. While we're at it, assume the shape is somehow evenly colored and evenly lit across its entire surface, physics be damned. To be a bit more explicit in our requirements here, lets imagine we can only ever have a purely 2-Dimensional perception of this object, i.e., we can only ever see a 2-Dimensional picture of it.

Is it possible to grasp the complete topography of the shape by just looking at it from one angle? Well, lets consider a simpler shape: your average cylinder. If you look at a cylinder side-on, you won't perceive the curves of the surface, all you'd be able to visually parse is a rectangle. Likewise, if you look at a cylinder from its base, you would perceive a circle! We must view the cylinder from a multitude of angles in order to begin to understand its actual complete shape, each new angle helping us refine the 3-Dimensional approximation in our heads.

I argue that there is a parallel here to any non-trivial concept. How many times have you ever needed only one tutorial or example or attempt to fully learn something new? It's quite likely that you pick up on things quicker than I, yet I still wouldn't believe any response you might give that was something besides “never”.

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