In the early seventeenth century, the outcome of something as
simple as a dice roll was consigned to the realm of unknowable
chance. Mathematicians largely agreed that it was impossible to
predict the probability of an occurrence. Then, in 1654, Blaise
Pascal wrote to Pierre de Fermat explaining that he had discovered
how to calculate risk. The two collaborated to develop what is now
known as probability theorya concept that allows us to think
rationally about decisions and events. In The Unfinished Game,
Keith Devlin masterfully chronicles Pascal and Fermats mathematical
breakthrough, connecting a centuries-old discovery with its
remarkable impact on the modern world.
關於作者：
Keith Devlin Keith Devlin --
regular National Public Radio commentator and member of the
Stanford University staff -- writes about the genetic progression
of mathematical thinking and the most head-scratching math problems
of the day. And he somehow manages to make it fun for the lay
reader. Biography Odds are, John Grisham doesn’t get interview
questions like this: "If you could meet any mathematician, who
would it be?" But author Keith Devlin does, this time from Discover
magazine as part of a January 2001 article coinciding with the
publication of his book The Math Gene: How Mathematical Thinking
Evolved and Why Numbers Are Like Gossip. His answer may go a long
way toward explaining why he has managed to make the world of
numbers not only understandable but also enjoyable to a segment of
the population that can’t balance a checkbook without a net -- or
backup from MIT. “Isaac Newton,” Devlin told the inquiring minds at
Discover. “He was a quarrelsome, egotistical person, but he also
invented calculus. He did it, by the way, when he was a student at
Cambridge. The Great Plague was going on, so the university was
closed, and young Newton found himself without studies to do. Most
20-year-olds would think, ‘Whoopee! I’ll just have a good time.’
Newton went home and invented calculus.” It is this same kind of
passion for mathematics that has enabled Devlin, now the executive
director of the Center for the Study of Language and Information at
Stanford University, to persuade readers that arithmetic, geometry
and calculus can be a bracing addition to the stack on the bedside
table. In The Math Gene, he explains the “innate sense of number”
that lives inside the human mind and how the development of
mathematical thinking is closely bound to the development of
language. In Goodbye, Descartes: The End of Logic and the Search
for a New Cosmology of the Mind, he argues against the possibility
of artificial intelligence, saying that computers are simply logic
machines that cannot replicate the rational thought and
communication that are part of human smarts. In his newest book,
The Millennium Problems: The Seven Greatest Unsolved Mathematical
Puzzles of Our Time, he explains a historic competition announced
by a Cambridge, Massachusetts foundation in 2000: Anyone who could
solve any one of seven of the most perplexing math problems of the
current age would win $1 million. In a 1999 review, the Economist
noted that “Devlin succeeds both in giving us a glimpse of the
internal beauty of the subject and in demonstrating its usefulness
in the external world. The Language of Mathematics is lucidly
written and richly illustrated, and remains accessible and
enthusiastic throughout.” On NPR’s Weekend Edition, where he has
become a regular guest, Devlin is referred to simply as “The Math
Guy,” or as host Scott Simon once put it “our white knight of the
world of mathematics.” And, going back to that provocative subtitle
in The Math Gene, just how is math like gossip? “Mathematicians
deal with a collection of objects -- numbers, triangles, groups,
fields -- and ask questions like: ‘What is the relationship between
Objects X and Y?. If X does this to Y, what will Y do back to X?’”
he told Discover. “It''s got plot, it''s got characters, it''s got
relationships between them, and it''s got life and emotion and
passion and love and hate, a bit of everything you can find in a
soap opera. On the other hand, a soap opera isn''t going to get you
to the moon and back. Mathematics can.” Just don’t forget to carry
the 1. Good To Know Devlin was the coauthor of the television
special A Mathematical Mystery Tour, broadcast as part of the Nova
series in 1984. He once offered as proof of the human brain’s
intuitive math skills the ability to judge speed and distance while
driving and the ability to add up bowling scores. Devlin once
managed to explain the mathematical difference between a knot and a
tangle to National Public Radio’s listeners. Hometown: Palo Alto,
California Date of Birth: 三月 16, 1947 Place of Birth: Hull, England
Education: B.S., King''s College, London, 19
目錄：
NOTE TO THE READER
PREFACE
Monday,August 24，1654
A Problem Worthy of Great Minds
On the Shoulders of a Giant
A Man of Slight Build
The Great Amateur
Terrible Confusions
Out of the Gaming Room
Into the Everyday World
The Chance of Your Life
The Measure of Our Ignorance
THE KEY LETTER FROM PA SCAL TO FERMAT
INDEX
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