The mathematics of the gods and the algorithms of men : a cultural history
Zellini, Paolo, 1946-2021
Books
The complexity of mathematics - its abstract rules and obscure symbols - can seem very distant from the everyday. There are those things that are real and present, it is supposed, and then there are mathematical concepts: creations of our mind, mysterious tools for those unengaged with the world. Yet, from its most remote history and deepest purpose, mathematics has served not just as a way to understand and order, but also as a foundation for the reality it describes. In this elegant book, mathematician and philosopher Paolo Zellini offers a brief cultural and intellectual history of mathematics, ranging widely from the paradoxes of ancient Greece to the sacred altars of India, from Mesopotamian calculus to our own contemporary obsession with algorithms.
Main title:
The mathematics of the gods and the algorithms of men : a cultural history / Paolo Zellini ; translated by Simon Carnell and Erica Segre.
Author:
Imprint:
London : Penguin Books, 2021.
Collation:
256 pages ; 20 cm
Notes:
Translated from the Italian.This translation originally published: UK: Allen Lane, 2020.Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:
9780141986487 (pbk. :)
Dewey class:
510.1510.1 ZELL
Language:
EnglishItalian
BRN:
294576
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