| This textbook by an NYU math/computer science professor and two alumni of the NYU CS graduate program uses fiction (and other creative means) to teach some concepts from logic, statistics, and math. Some of the stories take place in clearly fictional universe, such as one where nobody is ever altruistic, and another where birds on an island with no predators debate about voting theory.
In another story, the "youngest female recipient of the prestigious Fields Medal" is assigned the task of randomly selecting people to populate an "ark" to save the human race, but she is found to be cheating and -- in a reference to the now largely forgotten Cambridge Analytica scandal -- using social media to select people based on their opinions.
Other stories are more realistic. In fact, although the subtitle suggests that this book is made up of "short stories", I would only classify some parts of it as being fiction at all. For instance, a long middle part of the book consists of diary entries written during the Covid-19 pandemic by "The General of WHAT". (I presume that is a pun on the World Health Organization?) They share "The General's" opinion on such things as lockdowns and hydroxychloroquine. However, those read to me like a non-fictional blog that Mishra might have written at the time.. Similarly, the end of the book is a nicely illustrated, colorful comic strip covering such topics as the Liar's Paradox and coastlines as fractals. But, I would say that it is a creative way to teach some technical subjects, but not a work of fiction.
Quite a bit of the material covered in the book are logical fallacies or common mistakes in the interpretation of statistics. I think their goal is to create a healthy skepticism in readers of the book, but I fear that they present so many examples of well-intentioned experts making mistakes or con artists using math/logic to defraud people that the reader will be left more cynical than skeptical.
Still, each individual story does a good job of conveying the underlying mathematical concepts, some of which are well-known and others more obscure. Plus, there are plenty of exercises that could make this suitable for an actual college course or just for someone who wants to challenge themselves to learn the ideas more deeply. |
