MATHEMATICAL FICTION:

a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)

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Fractal Karma (2024)
Arula Ratnakar
(click on names to see more mathematical fiction by the same author)
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Contributed by Gregory L. Cherlin

You probably recall Ratnakar whose interest is neuroscience, but also takes a strong interest in using mathematical ideas in her writing. Just out in Clarkesworld, is "Fractal Karma". According to the review by A.C. Wise in Locus:

Excerpt From Locus, December 2024, Locus Publications: “‘Fractal Karma’’ by Arula Ratnakar is a novella that feels like a spiritual successor to the author’s previous novella, ‘‘Axiom of Dreams’’, published in Clarkesworld last year. Both explore the mind-altering possibilities of math when combined with drug use and technology. In this case, the experimental drug is known as Klein-bottle, and the technology is a three-way headset that allows (or forces) users to share memories and erases the boundaries between self and other. Leela signs up for an experimental study to earn money, but quickly begins to lose herself in her past. The story is effective in its exploration of memory, guilt, the idea of being truly perceived, and how we frame the narrative of our lives.”

I've now read that story. As mentioned, it makes use of a mix of drugs, speculation about cognition, and mathematics. The last line of the review is on point - it is not really "about" any of its constituents; they are raw material. More so than in the previous story.

However: the central technological device, a shared headset, is in some sense supposed to be modeled on the Borromean rings and leads eventually to a Klein bottle, and the idea of being trapped in an emotional cycle is viewed as an attractor in a dynamical system, while the Sierpinski triangle gets woven in to the story fairly intimately.

Also turning up in the narrative is a recent article (2022): whose connection to the text seems pretty loose.

The mathematics is used primarily in what one might call a geographic manner: it is set in mathematics the way a story might be set in Chicago. The individual elements don't seem to be intrinsically connected with each other. But the setting is certainly pervasive, and the relative centrality of the metaphor of the Borromean rings may make this a candidate for your database. No doubt in due course we'll be seeing more in this vein from Ratnakar, with more or less prominence given to the various cognitive, mathematical, and pharmacological aspects that Wise notes.

(I note that for Wise, the effect of the story is that the mathematics is actually carrying the narrative along; there is a bit of sleight of hand involved there, but that's what writers generally are supposed to aim at, particularly in speculative fiction.)

NB. I notice incidentally that the psychologist Lacan was also prone to invoking both the Borromean rings and the Klein bottle, but I couldn't say offhand whether Ratnakar is aware of that. Lacan's perspective does not appear to play a role here (for Lacan, the rings are "the symbolic, the imaginary, and the real" and he tended to use mathematical metaphors rather casually).

More information about this work can be found at clarkesworldmagazine.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 Fractal Karma
According to my `secret formula', the following works of mathematical fiction are similar to this one:
  1. Axiom of Dreams by Arula Ratnakar
  2. Babirusa by Arula Ratnakar
  3. Path Correction by Sylvia Wenmackers
  4. The Rapture of the Nerds by Cory Doctorow / Charles Stross
  5. A Catastrophe Machine by Carter Scholz
  6. Manifold Thoughts by Patrick Freivald
  7. Location, velocity, end point by Matt Tighe
  8. Perturbation - For Nature Computes On A Straight Line (In Seven Balancing Acts) by Vijay Fafat
  9. Mathematical Revelations by Helen De Cruz
  10. The Pythagoras Problem by Trevor Baxendale
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Categories:
GenreScience Fiction,
Motif
TopicGeometry/Topology/Trigonometry, Chaos/Fractals,
MediumShort Stories, Available Free Online,

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Exciting News: The 1,600th entry was recently added to this database of mathematical fiction! Also, for those of you interested in non-fictional math books let me (shamelessly) plug the recent release of the second edition of my soliton theory textbook.

(Maintained by Alex Kasman, College of Charleston)