“Elegance in Design”: Mathematics and the Works of Ted Chiang

Jessica K. Sklar ()
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Jessica K. Sklar: Pacific Lutheran University, Mathematics Department

Chapter 33 in Handbook of the Mathematics of the Arts and Sciences, 2021, pp 981-1000 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Author Ted Chiang masterfully weaves higher-level mathematical concepts into the fabric of his science fantasy narratives: concepts such as the compactification of the real line, linear orderings on sets, public-key encryption, and Fermat’s principle of least time play profound – if not always explicit – roles in his stories. His unique and compelling narratives have broad emotional appeal: the movie Arrival (2016), adapted from his novella “Story of Your Life (2016),” finished in third place at the box office during its opening weekend. But beyond this, Chiang’s stories are instructive: his readers find themselves learning about mathematics – as well as about linguistics, physics, computer science, and Babylonian cosmology – without even trying. This chapter discusses some of the ways in which Chiang uses mathematics to illuminate nonmathematical concepts; nonmathematical concepts to communicate mathematical ideas; and connections between the two to provide his readers – especially those with some mathematical background or inclination – with literary “aha moments.”

Keywords: Ted Chiang; Stories of Your Life and Others; ‘‘Tower of Babylon”; Alexandroff one-point compactification of the real number line; Topological spaces; Compactness; Infinity; Real projective plane; Edwin Abbott Abbott; Flatland; ‘‘Seventy-Two Letters”; Victorian England; Victorian era; Euonym; Kabbalah; Golem; Shem; Nomenclature; Public-key encryption/decryption; RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) cryptography; Integers; Factor; Prime number; Relatively prime; Congruent modulo n; ϕ(n); Public key; Private key; Bézout’s Identity; Division Algorithm; Euler’s Theorem; ‘‘Division by Zero”; Formalism; Kurt Gödel; Gödel numbering; Alex Kasman; Mathematical Fiction (website); ‘‘Story of Your Life”; Arrival; Semasiographic system; Semagrams; Logograms; Variational principle; Fermat’s principle of least time; Calculus of variations; Derivative; Functional (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-57072-3_47

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