MATHEMATICAL FICTION:

a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)

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Moriarty by Modem (1995)
Jack Nimersheim
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Contributed by "William E. Emba"

A cyberversion of Sherlock Holmes is created to track down an accidently released cyberversion of Moriarty. The big clue involves both the binomial theorem and binomial variables.

Published in Mike Resnick and M H Greenberg (eds) SHERLOCK HOLMES IN ORBIT

I'm afraid that this story, though cute, really strained my abilities to suspend disbelief. Not only are we expected to believe that Charles Babbage actually created a computer which became a state secret, but this computer was supposed to have been powerful enough to run an artificially intelligent program which was a sentient "Sherlock Holmes". The mention (but apparently, not much of an understanding) of the binomial theorem and its counterpart in probability theory are not enough to save this story in my mind.

More information about this work can be found at www.amazon.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 Moriarty by Modem
According to my `secret formula', the following works of mathematical fiction are similar to this one:
  1. The Adventure of the Russian Grave by William Barton / Michael Capobianco
  2. The Ultimate Crime by Isaac Asimov
  3. The Future Engine by Byron Tetrick
  4. Reading by Numbers by Aidan Doyle
  5. The Square Cube Law by Fletcher Pratt
  6. The Turing Option by Harry Harrison / Marvin Minksy
  7. Dalrymple’s Equation by Paul Fairman
  8. Mirror Image by Isaac Asimov
  9. Death Qualified: A Mystery of Chaos by Kate Willhelm
  10. The Image in the Mirror by Dorothy Leigh Sayers
Ratings for Moriarty by Modem:
RatingsHave you seen/read this work of mathematical fiction? Then click here to enter your own votes on its mathematical content and literary quality or send me comments to post on this Webpage.
Mathematical Content:
2.5/5 (2 votes)
..
Literary Quality:
3.5/5 (2 votes)
..

Categories:
GenreMystery, Science Fiction,
MotifEvil mathematicians, Sherlock Holmes,
TopicComputers/Cryptography, Algebra/Arithmetic/Number Theory, Probability/Statistics,
MediumShort Stories,

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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)