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Division By Zero
13 pages, ebook
Published January 1, 2010
9 people are currently reading
474 people want to read
About the author
Ted Chiang
113 books11.2k followersTed Chiang is an American science fiction writer. His Chinese name is Chiang Feng-nan. He graduated from Brown University with a Computer Science degree. He currently works as a technical writer in the software industry and resides in Bellevue, near Seattle, Washington. He is a graduate of the noted Clarion Writers Workshop (1989) and has been an instructor for it (2012, 2016). Chiang is also a frequent non-fiction contributor to the New Yorker, where he writes on topics related to computing such as artificial intelligence.
Chiang has published 18 short stories, to date, and most of them have won prestigious speculative fiction awards - including multiple Nebula Awards, Locus Awards, Hugo Awards, and British Science Fiction Association Awards, among others. His short story "Story of Your Life" was the basis of the film Arrival (2016). He has never written a novel but is one of the most decorated science fiction writers currently working.
Chiang's first eight stories are collected in "Stories of Your Life, and Others" and the next nine, in "Exhalation: Stories".
Chiang has published 18 short stories, to date, and most of them have won prestigious speculative fiction awards - including multiple Nebula Awards, Locus Awards, Hugo Awards, and British Science Fiction Association Awards, among others. His short story "Story of Your Life" was the basis of the film Arrival (2016). He has never written a novel but is one of the most decorated science fiction writers currently working.
Chiang's first eight stories are collected in "Stories of Your Life, and Others" and the next nine, in "Exhalation: Stories".
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 89 reviews
January 6, 2022
Renee, genius mathematician, realises that maths is made up and meaningless (just like I did at age 8 without all the extra steps)
February 26, 2023
Hilbert once said, "If mathematical thinking is defective, where are we to find truth and certitude?"
I can't say I followed every nuance and detail of this short story about a mathematics professor facing an existential crisis when she proves mathematically that 1=2 and thus renders all of math false, but it was an interesting read nonetheless of an couple in academia facing life-altering crisis.
I can't say I followed every nuance and detail of this short story about a mathematics professor facing an existential crisis when she proves mathematically that 1=2 and thus renders all of math false, but it was an interesting read nonetheless of an couple in academia facing life-altering crisis.
May 14, 2023
After reading a few of his short stories back to back, I'm realizing that the author may be one of those authors who are great at creating the initial idea - the hook, if you will... but who has no idea what to do with the idea once he has it.
A highly interesting idea: what would happen if someone came to know that the bedrock of what they "knew" was wrong. Terrible execution: unlikable characters argue and one decides to divorce the other after a suicide attempt. Wtf?!
Hoping the author's work improves as I move to more recent stories.
A highly interesting idea: what would happen if someone came to know that the bedrock of what they "knew" was wrong. Terrible execution: unlikable characters argue and one decides to divorce the other after a suicide attempt. Wtf?!
Hoping the author's work improves as I move to more recent stories.
March 19, 2024
Horror story for mathematicians. I hate that it made me feel things.
December 28, 2022
1. As is usual with Ted Chiang's stories, it is a horrifyingly mind-bending hypothetical concept which is usually exactly what I want but this felt too out there and not adequately developed.
2. The essence of the story was about how deeply people can be affected when something shakes their core assumptions and the effect that suicidal thoughts can have upon a relationship which was explored well enough for a short story.
3. Math tidbits were nice and actually interesting.
4. The story felt incomplete as it was too small. It was very predictable in some aspects even if the structure was interesting. The concept didn't wow me or grab my attention as it has in other Ted Chiang stories.
Things that can hold your interest in this story:
1. Fun math facts that are also interesting because they are relevant to the story.
2. Handling of Suicidal thoughts and behavior of people suffering from mental health issues.
2. The essence of the story was about how deeply people can be affected when something shakes their core assumptions and the effect that suicidal thoughts can have upon a relationship which was explored well enough for a short story.
3. Math tidbits were nice and actually interesting.
4. The story felt incomplete as it was too small. It was very predictable in some aspects even if the structure was interesting. The concept didn't wow me or grab my attention as it has in other Ted Chiang stories.
Things that can hold your interest in this story:
1. Fun math facts that are also interesting because they are relevant to the story.
2. Handling of Suicidal thoughts and behavior of people suffering from mental health issues.
January 24, 2021
This is a story about a mathematician who discovers that she can make any number equal any other number, if true would change most of maths.
It was really well explained, even overexplained in some places which did make it feel a tiny bit gimmicky, I understand that this genre is more idea driven than character driven which I do appreciate but I feel it could have worked slightly better, like there didn't seem to be motivation for Carl to leave Renee.
The reason in the story was because she wasn't experiencing a "normal" type of depression. She gave the Analogy that it was like a religious person had proven for certain that God didn't exist, that level of changing her fundamental view on the world. She had fundamentally changed as a person. But the last two paragraphs were really ambiguous so I didn't really understand Carl's motivation.
Hard science fiction shouldn't have to make any compromises in making the story character driven if the whole point of story is about an exploration of possibilities of ideas, it's not really aiming to be about people, But I think their choices should still make sense and Carl's didn't to me at all. Or I just didn't understand the ending.
Overall it was a really interesting story, I really liked the structure of referencing something from the history of maths, and then a little bit from each character's perspective,
It was kind of about a paradigm shift in thinking about the world, not necessarily a story about maths, it was a story about the philosophy of maths and the mindset of mathematicians. It kind of posed the question, of "should maths be in the same category as science?" Is it empirical knowledge or is it A priori, basically, can we prove it is true, or is it like science in that we can never really Prove, only falsify.
I thought the idea of maths not being known A priori was interesting but wish it had been pushed a bit further, Does maths offer a model for a way of understanding the world in the same way as science does or is it an inherent part of the world.
I'd love to see Chiang address this in a longer story.
It was really well explained, even overexplained in some places which did make it feel a tiny bit gimmicky, I understand that this genre is more idea driven than character driven which I do appreciate but I feel it could have worked slightly better, like there didn't seem to be motivation for Carl to leave Renee.
The reason in the story was because she wasn't experiencing a "normal" type of depression. She gave the Analogy that it was like a religious person had proven for certain that God didn't exist, that level of changing her fundamental view on the world. She had fundamentally changed as a person. But the last two paragraphs were really ambiguous so I didn't really understand Carl's motivation.
Hard science fiction shouldn't have to make any compromises in making the story character driven if the whole point of story is about an exploration of possibilities of ideas, it's not really aiming to be about people, But I think their choices should still make sense and Carl's didn't to me at all. Or I just didn't understand the ending.
Overall it was a really interesting story, I really liked the structure of referencing something from the history of maths, and then a little bit from each character's perspective,
It was kind of about a paradigm shift in thinking about the world, not necessarily a story about maths, it was a story about the philosophy of maths and the mindset of mathematicians. It kind of posed the question, of "should maths be in the same category as science?" Is it empirical knowledge or is it A priori, basically, can we prove it is true, or is it like science in that we can never really Prove, only falsify.
I thought the idea of maths not being known A priori was interesting but wish it had been pushed a bit further, Does maths offer a model for a way of understanding the world in the same way as science does or is it an inherent part of the world.
I'd love to see Chiang address this in a longer story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 2, 2021
Some knowledge is dangerous, because it reveals to you a recursive, infinitely regressing structure underpinning what seems to be a reliable foundation (like the set theory in maths). It is hard to stop staring at ever-evolving infinity, but it also drives you insane. Cantor and Gödel did stare.
January 26, 2025
The devastating consequences of realising one’s love object is fundamentally flawed.
This is a story of love, and the devastating consequences of realising one’s love object is not as perfect as one thought.
The opening paragraph reads like a maths textbook and the second is set in a psychiatric hospital. Don’t let either put you off.
I married a man with a maths degree, and our child is now at university studying theoretical physics that is practically maths, but I am primarily a words person. This gave me a wonderful peek at the joy that can be found in numbers and patterns - theoretical, and also physical - as well as the psychological risks.
“As a child of seven… Renee had been spellbound at discovering the perfect squares in the smooth marble tiles of the floor. A single one, two rows of two, three rows of three… the tiles fit together in a square... No matter which side you looked at it from, ti came out the same. And more than that, each square was bigger than the last by an odd number of tiles. It was an epiphany. The conclusion was necessary; it had a rightness to it, confirmed by the smooth, cool feel of the tiles. And the way the tiles were fitted together… she had shivered at the precision.”
She devoted her life to maths, was happy and successful, until she made a discovery that was “like a theologian proving that there was no God”. How to find meaning life after that? (And don’t say 42!)
The mathematical ideas relevant to the story were explained clearly enough that I think I understood them sufficiently. If you want to delve deeper, Mark H recommended this, though I confess it went above my head:
https://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~chaiti...
Image source:
http://www.shelovesmath.com/
For other stories in the collection, Stories of Your Life, see my review HERE.
This is a story of love, and the devastating consequences of realising one’s love object is not as perfect as one thought.
The opening paragraph reads like a maths textbook and the second is set in a psychiatric hospital. Don’t let either put you off.
I married a man with a maths degree, and our child is now at university studying theoretical physics that is practically maths, but I am primarily a words person. This gave me a wonderful peek at the joy that can be found in numbers and patterns - theoretical, and also physical - as well as the psychological risks.
“As a child of seven… Renee had been spellbound at discovering the perfect squares in the smooth marble tiles of the floor. A single one, two rows of two, three rows of three… the tiles fit together in a square... No matter which side you looked at it from, ti came out the same. And more than that, each square was bigger than the last by an odd number of tiles. It was an epiphany. The conclusion was necessary; it had a rightness to it, confirmed by the smooth, cool feel of the tiles. And the way the tiles were fitted together… she had shivered at the precision.”
She devoted her life to maths, was happy and successful, until she made a discovery that was “like a theologian proving that there was no God”. How to find meaning life after that? (And don’t say 42!)
The mathematical ideas relevant to the story were explained clearly enough that I think I understood them sufficiently. If you want to delve deeper, Mark H recommended this, though I confess it went above my head:
https://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~chaiti...
Image source:
http://www.shelovesmath.com/
For other stories in the collection, Stories of Your Life, see my review HERE.
May 23, 2023
This level of dedication and insanity was deeply felt. Reminded me of differential equations when i would wake up crying and sweating from math fever dreams👍🏼
January 29, 2025
A really good look at lose of faith and the inability of someone to empathize with someone who has their faith shaken, from the perspective of someone who’s faith is still strong.
March 3, 2022
It really bugs me that this book is based on false assumption that 0 x infinity = 0.
Apart from that characters weren't too likeable, just complaining about something that they don't like. Not really trying understand one another.
And well, mathematics not being 100% reliable isn't that big of a deal, spaceships still work even when very complicated math is used, even when we approach a problem we wouldn't be able to solve, we will try to find a new way, redefine our knowledge, achieve better understanding of how world works and why some things don't make sense or work differently than we thought.
Apart from that characters weren't too likeable, just complaining about something that they don't like. Not really trying understand one another.
And well, mathematics not being 100% reliable isn't that big of a deal, spaceships still work even when very complicated math is used, even when we approach a problem we wouldn't be able to solve, we will try to find a new way, redefine our knowledge, achieve better understanding of how world works and why some things don't make sense or work differently than we thought.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 19, 2022
It went nowhere interesting. The story places so much emphasis on Renee disproving mathematics as a fundamental reality, to her dismay, but the novelty of this concept is just window dressing. Her situation is an analogue for any mental illness. Husband can't empathize with wife's breakdown, grows distant, wants to leave. The end. The math didn't tie back in in a meangful way, other than to diminish Carl's ability to relate.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 6, 2022
The title had me worried, but I was pleasantly surprised.
You have to give Chiang credit in being well-read in the specifics surroundings his storys.
Although I was familiar with all the mathematical history and context, it was still really well written and overall woven into one compelling story.
You have to give Chiang credit in being well-read in the specifics surroundings his storys.
Although I was familiar with all the mathematical history and context, it was still really well written and overall woven into one compelling story.
January 9, 2021
How amazing. Damn.
January 23, 2023
Nice concept but very abrubt ending - I felt like there was some mistake and there didn't seem to be any tie-off to the story. But I suppose a lack of neat symmetry may have been the point
January 3, 2024
If one wants to understand how 1 can =2 just do this:
1. Read Euclid’s Elements, since it is literally definitive.
2. Learn quantum mechanics, which is definitive supra.
3. Apply the Copenhagen interpretation, ibid.
Then you’ll know the circumstances where 1=2 or 1=269,638,089 or even 1=infinity makes perfect sense. How can this be so? It’s easy Therefore, “Like the classical physicists facing quantum mechanics . . .” is an apt analogy.
1. Read Euclid’s Elements, since it is literally definitive.
2. Learn quantum mechanics, which is definitive supra.
3. Apply the Copenhagen interpretation, ibid.
Then you’ll know the circumstances where 1=2 or 1=269,638,089 or even 1=infinity makes perfect sense. How can this be so? It’s easy Therefore, “Like the classical physicists facing quantum mechanics . . .” is an apt analogy.
September 13, 2024
I was underwhelmed by this story when I first read it, but for some reason it really stuck with me.
December 19, 2024
The world is meaningless. Knew that
March 8, 2022
Personally I enjoy science fiction books where the concepts from scientific theory are utilised to explore ideas which can lead to interesting stories.
This particular story centers around one idea: Godel discovered that it is not possible to prove a lot of things in mathematics, therefore equations like 1=2 have never been encountered till now but it can't be guaranteed that we will never encounter them in future.
In this story, the writer tries to explore what if we do encounter this logical fallacy?
Now, this premise is kind-off interesting but the story goes nowhere with it. The characters are not well developed, their reactions seems exaggerated just to induce synthetic drama into the story.
Moreover, the maths side is never explored, there is no mention of how the logical fallacy actually happened. There is also no discussion on the possibile impact of it. I mean currently, mathematics seems to hold for our reality and through various simulations we have also been able to confirm that the extra-dimensional extrapolation also holds well. Therefore, even if a logical fallacy is found it will lead to a deeper discussion as to why the current maths still represents the world so well?
It's an interesting idea which is wasted on a story which goes nowhere. I feel bad as there is already a dearth of maths science fiction, and the few we get are so poorly developed.
This particular story centers around one idea: Godel discovered that it is not possible to prove a lot of things in mathematics, therefore equations like 1=2 have never been encountered till now but it can't be guaranteed that we will never encounter them in future.
In this story, the writer tries to explore what if we do encounter this logical fallacy?
Now, this premise is kind-off interesting but the story goes nowhere with it. The characters are not well developed, their reactions seems exaggerated just to induce synthetic drama into the story.
Moreover, the maths side is never explored, there is no mention of how the logical fallacy actually happened. There is also no discussion on the possibile impact of it. I mean currently, mathematics seems to hold for our reality and through various simulations we have also been able to confirm that the extra-dimensional extrapolation also holds well. Therefore, even if a logical fallacy is found it will lead to a deeper discussion as to why the current maths still represents the world so well?
It's an interesting idea which is wasted on a story which goes nowhere. I feel bad as there is already a dearth of maths science fiction, and the few we get are so poorly developed.
February 15, 2025
This review contains spoilers.
I realize that the last sentence of the story is interpreted quite differently in most of the other reviews than my interpretation. The fact that Carl decided not to share his empathy informs us that he decided not to leave Renee over her depression. He empathized with her silently, as he himself felt the hypocrisy of claiming to stay and support her while still secretly wanting to leave. It's the same that Renee felt when she mathematically disproved her own beliefs. But Carl's sharing that empathy with Renee would mean separating from her. Therefore, he "stopped himself", in author's last words of the story. Ironically, this also meant that Carl's empathy for Renee won over his innate desires to care for himself.
I realize that the last sentence of the story is interpreted quite differently in most of the other reviews than my interpretation. The fact that Carl decided not to share his empathy informs us that he decided not to leave Renee over her depression. He empathized with her silently, as he himself felt the hypocrisy of claiming to stay and support her while still secretly wanting to leave. It's the same that Renee felt when she mathematically disproved her own beliefs. But Carl's sharing that empathy with Renee would mean separating from her. Therefore, he "stopped himself", in author's last words of the story. Ironically, this also meant that Carl's empathy for Renee won over his innate desires to care for himself.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 26, 2021
Although the mathematics would sometimes go over my head, there was still so much to gain from its application to reconcile with learning a fundamental truth in your life is no longer applicable. This tugged at my heart in a way I didn't think it could. The dynamic of feeling an obligation to stay for loved ones in pain. It is a beautiful look into humanity like my prior experiences of Ted Chiang's words.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 17, 2021
Amazing story. The way Ted Chiang writes about scientific topics is so accurate and it is incredible how he makes you feel like so doubtful about reality!!!
November 14, 2023
CW: Multiple references to suicide, mental health, psychiatric care
I promise I'm not trying to be a hipster! How come the first one I actually love so far is the one everyone seems to be panning?!
A mathematician makes a breakthrough that proves maths as we know it to be a facade and the enormity of holding this in her mind destroys her world.
Maths is a mystery to me. I was a classic untreated neurodivergent kid with aptitude that had me among the top of the class until high school, when became a language I struggled to understand and my mental health and everything going on at home and school fully made me check out. It wasn't until talking to people at uni I even had a clue there was mode to maths than arithmetic and equations. I've never looked into the art and philosophy of maths, I have even less capacity now than I did then, but knowing it is as broad and magical as any other exploration and attempts to understand and make sense of our universe is one of those things that brings me joy. It is a very real magic that is completely out of my grasp, and I that is kinda cool.
Mental health, depression, and Ideation and suicd attempts are something I know a lot more about, and have been with me all of my life. There is a part of this narrative that echoes my learning about politics, capitalism, kyriarchy, and anarchism. The world and how I see it and am barely able to cope with it and don't know how any of us just go along with the fucked way the world is and how that gnaws away at my reality makes this story hit different. Hell, adult diagnoses, developing post viral chronic conditions and disabilities that emerged with my C-PTSD rearing it's head as a clusterfuck parting gift from swine flu, and all of their effect on my capacity and ability to do and understand things in ways I feel driven to but can't attain makes this hit extra hard too.
A friend said to me the other day in regards to the above:
"I just try and keep in mind that mark fisher killed himself and that other famous guy who hated industrial society so much he moved out to a cabin in the woods started mailing bombs to people...you can’t attempt to fully perceive the beast or you’ll go mad."
There are many things in our world that exert an influence on us like they are an eldritch entity and I love how this story treats this mathematical concept as forbidden knowledge, but with a relative subtlety that I find enchanting.
Just like Tower of Babylon and Understand, this is a another thought experiment, but to me this is one written with so much more heart and a more real feeling character and believable notion. Her relationship and history with her partner adds a level of weight and colour I just felt was missing from the other stories so far.
This sad girl is also just a sucker for a sad girl.
This has by far been my favourite story in the anthology so far and it genuinely makes me want to look into that side of maths.
I promise I'm not trying to be a hipster! How come the first one I actually love so far is the one everyone seems to be panning?!
A mathematician makes a breakthrough that proves maths as we know it to be a facade and the enormity of holding this in her mind destroys her world.
Maths is a mystery to me. I was a classic untreated neurodivergent kid with aptitude that had me among the top of the class until high school, when became a language I struggled to understand and my mental health and everything going on at home and school fully made me check out. It wasn't until talking to people at uni I even had a clue there was mode to maths than arithmetic and equations. I've never looked into the art and philosophy of maths, I have even less capacity now than I did then, but knowing it is as broad and magical as any other exploration and attempts to understand and make sense of our universe is one of those things that brings me joy. It is a very real magic that is completely out of my grasp, and I that is kinda cool.
Mental health, depression, and Ideation and suicd attempts are something I know a lot more about, and have been with me all of my life. There is a part of this narrative that echoes my learning about politics, capitalism, kyriarchy, and anarchism. The world and how I see it and am barely able to cope with it and don't know how any of us just go along with the fucked way the world is and how that gnaws away at my reality makes this story hit different. Hell, adult diagnoses, developing post viral chronic conditions and disabilities that emerged with my C-PTSD rearing it's head as a clusterfuck parting gift from swine flu, and all of their effect on my capacity and ability to do and understand things in ways I feel driven to but can't attain makes this hit extra hard too.
A friend said to me the other day in regards to the above:
"I just try and keep in mind that mark fisher killed himself and that other famous guy who hated industrial society so much he moved out to a cabin in the woods started mailing bombs to people...you can’t attempt to fully perceive the beast or you’ll go mad."
There are many things in our world that exert an influence on us like they are an eldritch entity and I love how this story treats this mathematical concept as forbidden knowledge, but with a relative subtlety that I find enchanting.
Just like Tower of Babylon and Understand, this is a another thought experiment, but to me this is one written with so much more heart and a more real feeling character and believable notion. Her relationship and history with her partner adds a level of weight and colour I just felt was missing from the other stories so far.
This sad girl is also just a sucker for a sad girl.
This has by far been my favourite story in the anthology so far and it genuinely makes me want to look into that side of maths.
June 22, 2023
This is just a spectacular example of the potential of the short story form. The structure of the story itself is mirrored by its plot in a beautiful irony.
The story's main plot is about a brilliant mathematician named Renee who discovers that all of mathematics is inconsistent. That is, the statement 1=2 is provable, which means everything mathematicians have built on top of arithmetic (i.e. everything) is meaningless. Her husband Carl is unable to understand why this impacts her so, and at the end, he is ready to leave her, shattering his own belief in his deep empathy.
But that's just the main plot. The story is structured as a two-column proof, with "A" referring to Renee's point-of-view and "B" to Carl. Presumably they start off as different; but the last chapter is titled "9A=9B", indicating that the same type contradiction that Renee proved underpins Renee's and Carl's relationship, ultimately destroying it.
And what is this contradiction? It's in fact the thing that connects Renee and Carl: Renee ended up destroying the edifice (mathematics) that so truly defined her sense of self. And in doing so, she also destroyed Carl's sense of self, which was rooted in his empathy (admittedly this could have been developed more in the story, but it is a short story after all): Carl was fundamentally unable to empathize with her and he found himself wanting to do the thing (leave his struggling wife) that he was sure he would never do.
And with that, he finally understands what happened to Renee. And thus 9A=9B.
The last line in the story "But he stopped himself: for this was an empathy that separated rather than. united them" wraps all of the contradictions up wonderfully.
The story's main plot is about a brilliant mathematician named Renee who discovers that all of mathematics is inconsistent. That is, the statement 1=2 is provable, which means everything mathematicians have built on top of arithmetic (i.e. everything) is meaningless. Her husband Carl is unable to understand why this impacts her so, and at the end, he is ready to leave her, shattering his own belief in his deep empathy.
But that's just the main plot. The story is structured as a two-column proof, with "A" referring to Renee's point-of-view and "B" to Carl. Presumably they start off as different; but the last chapter is titled "9A=9B", indicating that the same type contradiction that Renee proved underpins Renee's and Carl's relationship, ultimately destroying it.
And what is this contradiction? It's in fact the thing that connects Renee and Carl: Renee ended up destroying the edifice (mathematics) that so truly defined her sense of self. And in doing so, she also destroyed Carl's sense of self, which was rooted in his empathy (admittedly this could have been developed more in the story, but it is a short story after all): Carl was fundamentally unable to empathize with her and he found himself wanting to do the thing (leave his struggling wife) that he was sure he would never do.
And with that, he finally understands what happened to Renee. And thus 9A=9B.
The last line in the story "But he stopped himself: for this was an empathy that separated rather than. united them" wraps all of the contradictions up wonderfully.
November 25, 2021
Collected in Stories of Your Life and Others. Renee, a gifted mathematics professor, accidentally proves mathematics, the foundation of her life, is inconsistent! The loss of what was once a fundamental truth in her life leads her into a spiral of depression as she finds life meaningless. This affects not just her, the wider mathematics community as well as her husband, Carl.
Throughout time, there have been HUGE leaps in science, discoveries that have changed how we view the world. For example, the earth is not flat, and Galileo's Heliocentric view of astronomy, at odds with the Church so much they labeled him a heretic and tried to kill him.
The only thing we do know, is we know very little and there's much more to learn. When paradigm shifts occur, one should try and roll with the punches. Still, this story is overly maudlin and ends abruptly, so it's not one of the author's best works.
Throughout time, there have been HUGE leaps in science, discoveries that have changed how we view the world. For example, the earth is not flat, and Galileo's Heliocentric view of astronomy, at odds with the Church so much they labeled him a heretic and tried to kill him.
The only thing we do know, is we know very little and there's much more to learn. When paradigm shifts occur, one should try and roll with the punches. Still, this story is overly maudlin and ends abruptly, so it's not one of the author's best works.
March 12, 2025
Do not get this title mistaken. This is a horror story!
I think this book can be good for many people. I think people who love math will especially like it, but I also theorize people who hate math will find it also likable for different reasons. Where most horror short stories share a theme of the unknown, this one makes the horror about what is known. Rather than a ghost or demon, this story makes reality itself the antagonist.
I came out of this not only learning a lot of the history of mathematics, which is more fascinating than I could have imagined, but I also realized its limitations. Sure, math can get a man on the moon and run the world’s entire economy, but math cannot help lead one to what it beyond.
The characters are great and real, and the way the chapters are structured is nothing beyond brilliant. If you’re ever bored for 45 minutes, give this a read. 5/5. I am now obsessed
I think this book can be good for many people. I think people who love math will especially like it, but I also theorize people who hate math will find it also likable for different reasons. Where most horror short stories share a theme of the unknown, this one makes the horror about what is known. Rather than a ghost or demon, this story makes reality itself the antagonist.
I came out of this not only learning a lot of the history of mathematics, which is more fascinating than I could have imagined, but I also realized its limitations. Sure, math can get a man on the moon and run the world’s entire economy, but math cannot help lead one to what it beyond.
The characters are great and real, and the way the chapters are structured is nothing beyond brilliant. If you’re ever bored for 45 minutes, give this a read. 5/5. I am now obsessed
August 28, 2025
2=1 2=3 - 3=1
Just spent two hours experiencing this at a coffee shop.
The problem with these pseudo-Borges authors is that they have no heart. They’re too cold.
There’s no lyricism to the story so I can’t feel why this would be soul shattering. Language feeds on beauty; it’s not enough to say that someone is suicidal, the words have to carry that emotional weight.
It’s how the Aleph isn’t about the concept of the infinite itself, but about a feeling of sadness and loneliness in a vast, dying universe:
“Vi el polvo y los huesos de la que una vez fue Beatriz Viterbo… y ya olvido su rostro”
“Yo mismo estoy falseando y perdiendo, bajo la trágica erosión de los años, los rasgos de Beatriz…”
Nothing like that here.
Nolan style: Complex? Yes. Profound? No.
Just spent two hours experiencing this at a coffee shop.
The problem with these pseudo-Borges authors is that they have no heart. They’re too cold.
There’s no lyricism to the story so I can’t feel why this would be soul shattering. Language feeds on beauty; it’s not enough to say that someone is suicidal, the words have to carry that emotional weight.
It’s how the Aleph isn’t about the concept of the infinite itself, but about a feeling of sadness and loneliness in a vast, dying universe:
“Vi el polvo y los huesos de la que una vez fue Beatriz Viterbo… y ya olvido su rostro”
“Yo mismo estoy falseando y perdiendo, bajo la trágica erosión de los años, los rasgos de Beatriz…”
Nothing like that here.
Nolan style: Complex? Yes. Profound? No.
August 28, 2025
2=1 2=3 - 3=1
Just spent two hours experiencing this at a coffee shop.
The problem with these pseudo-Borges authors is that they have no heart. They’re too cold.
There’s no lyricism to the story so I can’t feel why this would be soul shattering. Language feeds on beauty; it’s not enough to say that someone is suicidal, the words have to carry that emotional weight.
It’s how the Aleph isn’t about the concept of the infinite itself, but about a feeling of sadness and loneliness in a vast, dying universe:
“Vi el polvo y los huesos de la que una vez fue Beatriz Viterbo… y ya olvido su rostro”
“Yo mismo estoy falseando y perdiendo, bajo la trágica erosión de los años, los rasgos de Beatriz…”
Nothing like that here.
Nolan style: Complex? Yes. Profound? No.
Just spent two hours experiencing this at a coffee shop.
The problem with these pseudo-Borges authors is that they have no heart. They’re too cold.
There’s no lyricism to the story so I can’t feel why this would be soul shattering. Language feeds on beauty; it’s not enough to say that someone is suicidal, the words have to carry that emotional weight.
It’s how the Aleph isn’t about the concept of the infinite itself, but about a feeling of sadness and loneliness in a vast, dying universe:
“Vi el polvo y los huesos de la que una vez fue Beatriz Viterbo… y ya olvido su rostro”
“Yo mismo estoy falseando y perdiendo, bajo la trágica erosión de los años, los rasgos de Beatriz…”
Nothing like that here.
Nolan style: Complex? Yes. Profound? No.
March 22, 2024
This short is one of the Others in this author's Stories of Your Life and Others book. It IMO is an excellent story illustrating what we believe is far more important than whet we think we Know. One character uses all the tools of math to proof that any number equals any other without contradiction of undefined usage (like division by Zero) and gets traumatized by the knowledge this is true according to the common arithmetic we use... so what? well some may ask how can we trust anything we've been told... touch see smell taste feel? Plato would tell them, we can't... we might just imagine the reality... how is other confirm our sense of reality? maybe we just think them up to confirm it.
This Is an Interesting author of science fiction and philosophy!
This Is an Interesting author of science fiction and philosophy!
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