MathFiction: Statistician's Day (James Blish)

a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)

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Statistician's Day (1970)

James Blish
(click on names to see more mathematical fiction by the same author)
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Contributed by "William E. Emba"

An aging novelist and Nobel Prize winner gives what he knows is his last interview. But rather than take questions, he has rather pointed ones of his own, based on his twenty years of statistical analyses of the obituary pages. He claims to have identified the real way that zero population growth has been achieved (using plausible sounding statistical terminology), right down to predicting the day of his own death (using plausible sounding Malthusian economics and an implausible sounding reference to projective geometry).

Originally appeared in Anthony Cheetham (ed) SCIENCE AGAINST MAN.

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 Statistician's Day

According to my `secret formula', the following works of mathematical fiction are similar to this one:

Conservation of Probability by Brook West
Drunkard's Walk by Frederik Pohl
The Last Starship from Earth by John Boyd
Solar Lottery by Philip K. Dick
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
FYI by James Blish
The Year of the Jackpot by Robert A. Heinlein
Jack of Eagles by James Blish
The Maxwell Equations by Anatoly Dnieprov
The Statistomat Pitch by Chandler Davis

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Categories:

Genre	Science Fiction,
Motif	Future Prediction through Math,
Topic	Probability/Statistics,
Medium	Short Stories,

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Where are the new works of mathematical fiction?: As you can see from this chronological listing, this database includes many works of mathematical fiction for each year from 1990 to 2025. Strangely, only two are listed for 2026, so far. Either less mathematical fiction is being published than in previous years or I'm just having more trouble finding it. If you know of any works of fiction that should be added to this list, especially recently published ones, please let me know. (Keep in mind that I do not include self-published works or children's fiction that just covers elementary mathematical concepts.) Thanks!

(Maintained by Alex Kasman, College of Charleston)