MATHEMATICAL FICTION:

a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)

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Turing's Apples (2008)
Stephen Baxter
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Contributed by Vijay Fafat

Story about a far-away civilization transmitting a complex message in all directions, containing a software program (“Turing machine”) which ends up creating von Neumann machines with one specific purpose: encoding all the civilization's knowledge in the form of folded space-time entities. The ultimate aim is to ensure that the universe is not able to erase all that conscious thought has learnt and invented in spite of the accelerated expansion of the universe which is bound to rip apart all its constituents in time (“The universe has no memory”). Along the way, the story delves briefly into Shannon's information entropy.

Currently available for free online in the GoogleBooks version of Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-sixth Annual.

More information about this work can be found at books.google.com.
(Note: This is just one work of mathematical fiction from the list. To see the entire list or to see more works of mathematical fiction, return to the Homepage.)

Works Similar to Turing's Apples
According to my `secret formula', the following works of mathematical fiction are similar to this one:
  1. Proof by Induction by José Pablo Iriarte
  2. A Mathematician's Galatea by Andrew Magrath
  3. Love and a Triangle by Stanley Waterloo
  4. Touching Centauri by Stephen Baxter
  5. Snow by Geoffrey A. Landis
  6. Diamond Dogs by Alastair Reynolds
  7. The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter
  8. Gödel's Sunflowers by Stephen Baxter
  9. Planck Zero by Stephen Baxter
  10. Freemium by Louis Evans
Ratings for Turing's Apples:
RatingsHave you seen/read this work of mathematical fiction? Then click here to enter your own votes on its mathematical content and literary quality or send me comments to post on this Webpage.
Mathematical Content:
2.5/5 (2 votes)
..
Literary Quality:
4/5 (2 votes)
..

Categories:
GenreScience Fiction,
MotifAcademia, Aliens, Turing,
TopicComputers/Cryptography,
MediumShort Stories, Available Free Online,

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Exciting News: The total number of works of mathematical fiction listed in this database recently reached a milestone. The 1,500th entry is The Man of Forty Crowns by Voltaire. Thanks to Vijay Fafat for writing the summary of that work (and so many others). I am also grateful to everyone who has contributed to this website. Heck, I'm grateful to everyone who visited the site. Thank you!

(Maintained by Alex Kasman, College of Charleston)