In Popular Culture
An Alderson disk (the Godwheel) was a prominent feature of Malibu Comics' Ultraverse. The Godwheel was split between two societies, one which used technology and one which used magic (each occupied separate sides of the disk). Author Larry Niven designed the Godwheel and wrote stories surrounding certain events on it.
A disk-shaped planet similar to an Alderson disk (though far smaller) served as the home world of the fantasy "Aysle" setting (or "cosm") of West End Games' Torg roleplaying game. In contrast with the Alderson disk, the Aysle "diskworld" works according to fantasy physics, including a "gravity plane" that bisects the disk laterally, so that opposite sides "fall" towards the plane. The diskworld of Aysle had a bobbing sun and multiple inner layers. Both sides of the disk were inhabited, as were the internal layers.
The Alderson disk is discussed in Larry Niven's "Bigger than Worlds" essay, 1974, which can be found in his Playgrounds of the Mind anthology.
In Charles Stross's Missile Gap, a copy of the whole Earth is placed on an Alderson disk built around a black hole by ASBs.
Read more about this topic: Alderson Disk
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