# Hyperdimensional entities in SF that aren't superpowered **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 24, 2016, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyperdimensional-entities-in-sf-that-arent-superpowered/775526 "2016-12-24T13:21:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2016, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyperdimensional-entities-in-sf-that-arent-superpowered/775526/1 "2016-12-24T13:21:44Z")
Super-powerful hyperdimensional entities like Q are dime-a-dozen in SF. But what about the hyperdimensional ordinaries? Those on a par with us. Are there any? How about TV series or films? I’m excluding time-travel. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2016, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyperdimensional-entities-in-sf-that-arent-superpowered/775526/2 "2016-12-24T14:13:11Z")
Well, you’ve got that “Access” character from the _DC vs Marvel_ crossover. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2016, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyperdimensional-entities-in-sf-that-arent-superpowered/775526/3 "2016-12-24T15:08:22Z")
IIRC, Asimov pretty much did this in **The Gods Themselves** : the inhabitants of the other universe seem – well, _godlike,_ since the set-up is that they can swap out stuff from our reality and replace it with stuff from theirs; and the stuff they swap in has incredibly useful properties that our top scientists can’t duplicate; and we don’t speak their language, but they know ours and can send us instructions; and so on. Anyhow, we eventually get to see what life is like on their world, and – well, they’re a lot like us: they’re fallible, and a lot of them basically act like gossipy housewives, and their top scientists can’t duplicate the useful properties of the stuff they get from _our_ world; and, okay, full marks for how one of them managed to learn our language, but it’s a plot point that a big chunk of the populace over there just concerns itself with cheerfully raising kids who’ll grow up to cheerfully raise kids. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2016, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyperdimensional-entities-in-sf-that-arent-superpowered/775526/4 "2016-12-24T15:41:51Z")
I’m not looking for entities that live in a separate universe, but ones which live in ours but exist in more than the three dimensions we know and love. They may - indeed should - have three-dimensional aspects, like the AGRA intelligence of 2300 AD’s Bayern adventure (which I’m excluding because it’s super-powered). As an example, hyperspace is frequently another dimension, so perhaps a character who has a hyperspatial aspect. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2016, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyperdimensional-entities-in-sf-that-arent-superpowered/775526/5 "2016-12-24T16:04:22Z")
I think the qualifiers laid in the OP are too focused to be of much use, since we’re talking about fictional beings here. IMO it seems unlikely that a writer would have used the exact descriptors used in the OP and then had them be simply ordinary beings. The fact that they exist in a manner not like our own is going to necessitate them having abilities different from our own; i.e. superpowers. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2016, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyperdimensional-entities-in-sf-that-arent-superpowered/775526/6 "2016-12-24T16:10:35Z")
Pretty sure if you can exists outside of three dimensional space and time you by definition would seem super powered to people who cannot. ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2016, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyperdimensional-entities-in-sf-that-arent-superpowered/775526/7 "2016-12-24T16:42:10Z")
Griffin in Men in Black 3? He can see alternative realities, but he can’t fly or anything super. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2016, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyperdimensional-entities-in-sf-that-arent-superpowered/775526/8 "2016-12-24T16:47:58Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Super-powerful hyperdimensional entities like Q are dime-a-dozen in SF. But what about the hyperdimensional ordinaries? Those on a par with us. Are there any? How about TV series or films? I’m excluding time-travel, so > > the aliens of [redacted] > > don’t count. I just want to say that that’s a terrible use of the spoiler tag. I hadn’t seen the movie spoilered yet, and planned on it - and there’s absolutely nothing in your post indicating what could possibly be in that box. It’s my fault for clicking on a ridiculously placed spoiler tag, but c’mon. ---
**Author:** ![Donpeyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a4c791/32.png) [@Donpeyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donpeyote)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2016, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyperdimensional-entities-in-sf-that-arent-superpowered/775526/9 "2016-12-24T16:56:34Z")
Leeland Yee and Shrimpboy ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2016, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyperdimensional-entities-in-sf-that-arent-superpowered/775526/10 "2016-12-24T17:23:15Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > I just want to say that that’s a terrible use of the spoiler tag. I hadn’t seen the movie spoilered yet, and planned on it - and there’s absolutely nothing in your post indicating what could possibly be in that box. It’s my fault for clicking on a ridiculously placed spoiler tag, but c’mon. I agree. It would have been better to write just leave it as “I’m excluding time travel” without spoiling the film by writing it in a spoiler box. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2016, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyperdimensional-entities-in-sf-that-arent-superpowered/775526/11 "2016-12-24T17:38:18Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > Pretty sure if you can exists outside of three dimensional space and time you by definition would seem super powered to people who cannot. Heh. Let me see if this would satisfy the OP: imagine someone has a weird bodily extrusion that (a) does her absolutely no good, and (b) extends out into some other dimension. And so she’s just walking around like the rest of us, living her life as best she can – and every once in a while, she experiences excruciating pain when some purely otherdimensional creature smacks into her protuberance. That’s the only thing she ever gets out of the deal: the ability to occasionally feel, uh, “phantom pain”, I guess you’d call it – whenever she’s hurt by stuff we’re all immune to. Sure, we _could_ say that’s a sad little superpower, but I don’t think we _would_. Would that qualify? ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2016, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyperdimensional-entities-in-sf-that-arent-superpowered/775526/12 "2016-12-24T17:58:49Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Super-powerful hyperdimensional entities like Q are dime-a-dozen in SF. But what about the hyperdimensional ordinaries? Those on a par with us. Are there any? How about TV series or films? I’m excluding time-travel. William Tenn’s “The Last Bounce” features higher dimensional creatures that menace human explorers - but the higher dimensional creatures aren’t all the powerful, just deadly; they don’t seem to be any more intelligent than (say) an insect. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2016, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyperdimensional-entities-in-sf-that-arent-superpowered/775526/13 "2016-12-24T18:25:01Z")
There’s the story “The Captured Cross-Section” by Miles J. Breuer: [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?54634](http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?54634) A man gets caught in a fourth-dimensional space. He recognizes that it’s a fourth-dimensional space because he sees things in it increasing and decreasing in size. He’s able to mentally see how these things would look as complete fourth-dimensional objects. It’s a great example of early science fiction. The fourth-dimensional beings aren’t any more or less powerful than us, just inhabitants of another world. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2016, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyperdimensional-entities-in-sf-that-arent-superpowered/775526/14 "2016-12-24T18:40:08Z")
The character of Hoid, AKA the Drifter, AKA the Wit from Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere stories might count. We don’t know that much about him, but he seems to able to wander freely between different worlds (and different seemingly unrelated books) as well as different levels of reality. Despite this, he doesn’t seem to have much in the way of powers - beside knowledge. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2016, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyperdimensional-entities-in-sf-that-arent-superpowered/775526/15 "2016-12-24T18:57:43Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > There’s the story “The Captured Cross-Section” by Miles J. Breuer: > > [Title: The Captured Cross-Section](http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?54634) > > A man gets caught in a fourth-dimensional space. He recognizes that it’s a fourth-dimensional space because he sees things in it increasing and decreasing in size. He’s able to mentally see how these things would look as complete fourth-dimensional objects. It’s a great example of early science fiction. The fourth-dimensional beings aren’t any more or less powerful than us, just inhabitants of another world. And Breuer’s most famous story “The Gostak and the Doshes” involves someone who develops the ability to travel between dimensions - it doesn’t do him much good. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2016, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyperdimensional-entities-in-sf-that-arent-superpowered/775526/16 "2016-12-24T19:02:42Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > I just want to say that that’s a terrible use of the spoiler tag. I hadn’t seen the movie spoilered yet, and planned on it - and there’s absolutely nothing in your post indicating what could possibly be in that box. It’s my fault for clicking on a ridiculously placed spoiler tag, but c’mon. Isn’t that the purpose of the spoiler box, so that you don’t spoil a thing unless someone takes the affirmative action of clicking on it? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2016, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyperdimensional-entities-in-sf-that-arent-superpowered/775526/17 "2016-12-24T19:10:18Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > I just want to say that that’s a terrible use of the spoiler tag. I hadn’t seen the movie spoilered yet, and planned on it - and there’s absolutely nothing in your post indicating what could possibly be in that box. It’s my fault for clicking on a ridiculously placed spoiler tag, but c’mon. If it helps, that’s not much of a spoiler. It’s not entirely accurate for one thing. Also, can’t you tell that something like that is going on just from the advertising? ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2016, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyperdimensional-entities-in-sf-that-arent-superpowered/775526/18 "2016-12-24T19:16:40Z")
There was a relatively recent Dr Who Episode. These were other dimensional beings that when projected into our universe were 2 dimensional. Not sure what their actual dimension level was. But they weren’t superpowered. Basically they were asshole grafitti that could kill you. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2016, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyperdimensional-entities-in-sf-that-arent-superpowered/775526/19 "2016-12-24T19:18:08Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Isn’t that the purpose of the spoiler box, so that you don’t spoil a thing unless someone takes the affirmative action of clicking on it? Aye, but by putting _what_ is being spoiled in the spoiler box, instead of outside it, it kind of makes the whole thing superfluous. For instance, which of these is well done and which is not? At the end of _Citizen Kane_we find out “Rosebud” referred to his boyhood sled. We find out that the Anthony Hopkins’ character thinks he is his mother (and is the killer) at the end of Psycho. ETA: Even better example of a bad spoiler: I’m not talking about movies with a twist ending like The Sixth Sense, ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2016, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyperdimensional-entities-in-sf-that-arent-superpowered/775526/20 "2016-12-24T19:31:26Z")
You mean, of course, Anthony Perkins, not Anthony Hopkins. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyperdimensional-entities-in-sf-that-arent-superpowered/775526.md?page=2)