World Literature Today

SCIENCE FICTION Mathematics in Science Fiction: Mathematics as Science Fiction David Fowler Both classical and current fiction include mathematics as a literary device. As commonly used in science fiction, topology includes the study of spatial dimension, including the arcane Fourth Dimension, famously employed by H. G. Wells (and many writers since) for time travel. In the following essay David Fowler suggests thatmathematics itself isa branch of science fiction. Imagine visiting a large commercial book store in the company of an extraterrestrial being?one suitably disguised and equipped for perception and discourse through our narrow spectral bands. Imagine further that you pause before a section marked "Science Fiction" or, more likely, "Science Fiction/Fantasy." Half themost recent titles are from a popular vampire series, and the leading seller, described as "hard science," deals with alien parasites inserting themselves intohuman brains. Together you wander through other sections of the store,and as you leave, your companion informs you, "On my planet, the sec tion you call Science Fiction would contain the books you call Mathematics." Your ET then vanishes, leaving you wonder ing ifthere was a glitch in the translation software. Did your otherworldly companion fail to under stand thatwe on Earth do includemathematical themes in our fiction, including science fiction? That error can easily be corrected. Is thisvisitor telling you that our mathematical knowledge is itselfa largework of fiction?This is certainly a much harder question toaddress. Let's beginwith the easier question. Mathematics inFiction Mathematical references in literature are abundant. A simple use of mathematics is to show that a character has a high degree of intelligence, as when Stieg Larsson's heroine, Lisbeth Salander, in the midst of ongoing danger, solves Fermat's "Last Theorem" using only the logical tools thatwould have been available to Ferm?t in 1637. At a somewhat higher level of use, a mathematical example may be used as a plot development device. Dan Brown uses the Fibonacci numbers this way inThe Da Vinci Code. Mathematics appears in more subtle fashion as the maze-solving scheme used by BrotherWilliam in Umberto Eco's TheName of theRose. The scheme is a "depth-first search algorithm" in computer science jargon,with an underlying mathematical justification. Readers of theabove novels will not be chal lenged mathematically by the above examples, whose superficial explanation is sufficienttokeep a story moving. Turning to a classical example? The Brothers Karamazov?one encounters a passage that certainly demands a pause for reflection: Ivan's comparison of his theological doubt to the existence of non-Euclidean geometry. Ivan Kara mazov sees his inability to grasp non-Euclidean geometry as evidence that he can't understand God. Although Euclid may no longer be theulti mate source of geometric truth,Ivan still accepts thework of themodern non-Euclidean thinkers as a standard of truth. Albert Einstein's supposed claim to have "learned more fromDostoevsky than fromany scientific thinker"may be apocry phal; but in any case, Dostoevsky's reflectionson time and space can be viewed as compatible, in qualitative fashion,with the framework of special relativity. In the above examples, mathematics is used as a Gold Standard for reasoning. Characters in fiction are brilliant thinkers if theyknow math 48 1 World Literature Today ESSAY ematics, even if they are evil characters such as Professor Moriarty, created by Conan Doyle to bedevil Sherlock Holmes: "He is a man of good birth and excellent education, endowed by nature with a phenomenal mathematical faculty.At the age of twenty-one he wrote a treatise upon the binomial theorem,which has had a European vogue." Rarely are mathematicians described as fool ish, although Swift's Island of Laputa persists as an image ofmathematicians as fools.As Alfred Whitehead pointed out, "Swiftdescribes the math ematicians of that country as silly and useless dreamers. ... On the other hand, the math ematicians of Laputa . . . ruled the country and maintained their ascendancy over their subjects." Whitehead also remarked thatNewton had just published his Principia and suggested that "Swift might justaswell have laughed at an earthquake." Finally,mathematicians may be inserted into fictionalnarratives to enhance historical plausibil ity, Neal Stephenson includes Alan Turing inhis novel Cryptonomicon. David Leavit's recent novel The Indian Clerk,based...