perspective that allowed us to orient ourselves to mathematical
objects from beyond the context of their own dimensionality.

The other main features of the Renaissance permitted similar shifts in
perspective. Circumnavigation of the globe changed our relationship
between the planet we live on and the maps we used to describe it. The
maps still worked, they just described a globe instead of a plane.
Anyone hoping to navigate a course had to be able to relate a
two-dimensional map to the new reality of a three-dimensional planet.

Similarly, the invention of moveable type and the printing press
changed the relationship of author and audience to text. The creation
of a manuscript was no longer a one-pointed affair. The creation of
the first manuscript still was, but now it could be replicated and
distributed to everyone. It was still one story, but now was subject
to a multiplicity of individual perspectives. This innovation alone
changed the landscape of religion in the Western World. Individual
interpretation of the Bible led to the collapse of Church authority
and the unilateral nature of its decrees. Everyone demanded his or her
own relationship to the story.

Our electronic renaissance

In all these cases, people experienced a very particular shift in
their relationship to, and understanding of, dimensions. Understood
this way, a renaissance is a moment of reframing. We step out of the
frame as it is currently defined and see the whole picture in a new
context. We can then play by new rules.

It is akin to the experience of a computer game player. At first, a
gamer will play a video or computer game by the rules. He'll read the
manual, if necessary, then move through the various levels of the
game. Mastery of the game, at this stage, means getting to the end:
making it to the last level, surviving, becoming the most powerful
character or, in the case of a simulation game, designing and
maintaining a thriving family, city or civilisation. For many gamers,
this is as far as it goes.

Some gamers, though - usually after they've mastered this level of
play - will venture out onto the internet in search of other fans or
user groups. There, they will gather the cheat codes that can be used
to acquire special abilities within the game, such as invisibility or
an infinite supply of ammunition. When the gamer returns to the game
with his secret codes, is he still playing the game or is he cheating?
From a renaissanc