Ask Slashdot: Mathematical Fiction?

An anonymous reader writes "Neal Stephenson's 1999 Cryptonomicon was a great yarn. It was also a thoroughly enjoyable (and too short) romp through some mathematics. Where can I find more of that? I should say that I don't want SF — at least none of the classic SF I read voraciously in the 70s; it's just not the same thing, and far too often just a puppet-theatre for an author's philosophical rant. Has any author managed to hit the same vein as Stephenson did? (Good non-fiction math-reads are also gratefully accepted. What have you got?)"

Comments

Re:Oo oo! I've got one!

[ScentCone]

No, no. There's a better one. The Obama campaign just came out with an actual glossy printed brochure that they say finally provides his plan to create jobs. Other than the fact that it doesn't contain any (let along any new) actual information and that it's nothing more than aspirational plans to borrow more money from elsewhere and spend it like the last round of stimulus money, but mostly on transient government jobs that don't actually create anything ... other than that, I'm told that the graphics and the quality of the paper are very nice. They indicate that they're going to print several hundred thousand and slip them under the door of undecided voters. Now there's some quality fiction for you.

I would like to see the math basis for borrowing and taxing the economy into prosperity, though. Especially the part on taxes. The actual math says that if you taxed rich people at 100% of their earnings, it wouldn't even close the government's spending deficit past the month of May in a given year. So, some math fiction that gets creatively around that unpleasant detail would be good reading indeed.