Mazes for the Mind: Computers and the Unexpected | Date: 22 April 2011, 13:32
|
A collection of games and computer graphics is divided into sections dealing with pattern, games and speculation, music, space, time, and others and offers puzzles inspired by those dating back several centuries.
From Publishers Weekly
"Welcome to my computer zoo," writes Pickover ( Computers and the Imagination ), a salutation that at some point during his tour of more than 200 "mind mazes" begins to seem increasingly worthy of Lewis Carroll's Mad Queen or Mary Shelley's Dr. Frankenstein. Fans of the Scientific American "Puzzling" column will recognize this book's genre, though it gradually, almost magically changes into something more challenging and weird. Pickover clearly enjoys the extra dimensions that computing affords recreational math puzzlers; he seems to have saved up a lifetime's worth of math teasers for this explosion-in-the-algorithmsp ok -factory collection. The length, complexity and level of difficulty varies wildly within the seven categories (from "Pattern" to "Weird Numbers"): some clearly require considerable knowledge and a PC to match, but just as many are more easily accessible and solvable. Enhanced by quirky design, this volume is the perfect tool with which to instill instant humility in any self-proclaimed math or computer whiz.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Pickover, a professional scientist with several earlier books to his credit, has published much material relating to computers, mathematics, and art that is not at a highly technical level. The present volume continues along the path of some of his earlier works ( Computers and the Imagination , LJ 11/1/91). It is a potpourri of mathematical brain teasers, miscellaneous factlets relating to music and mathematics, brief instructions relating to putting specific problems into a format solvable by a microcomputer, and various other short pieces too scattered in content to be readily characterized. This is not the sort of book that most readers will want to read through quickly and in exact order from beginning to end. However, Pickover provides much to reward sophisticated, selective browsers. Recommended for both public and academic libraries.
- Jack W. Weigel, Univ. of Michigan Lib., Ann Arbor
Biography
Clifford A. Pickover received his Ph.D. from Yale University and is the author of over 30 books on such topics as computers and creativity, art, mathematics, black holes, religion, human behavior and intelligence, time travel, alien life, and science fiction. Pickover is a prolific inventor with dozens of patents, is the associate editor for several journals, the author of colorful puzzle calendars, and puzzle contributor to magazines geared to children and adults. WIRED magazine writes, "Bucky Fuller thought big, Arthur C. Clarke thinks big, but Cliff Pickover outdoes them both." According to The Los Angeles Times, "Pickover has published nearly a book a year in which he stretches the limits of computers, art and thought." The Christian Science Monitor writes, "Pickover inspires a new generation of da Vincis to build unknown flying machines and create new Mona Lisas." Pickover's computer graphics have been featured on the cover of many popular magazines and on TV shows. His web site, Pickover.Com, has received millions of visits. His Blog RealityCarnival.Com is one of his most popular sites.
|
DISCLAIMER:
This site does not store Mazes for the Mind: Computers and the Unexpected on its server. We only index and link to Mazes for the Mind: Computers and the Unexpected provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete Mazes for the Mind: Computers and the Unexpected if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.
|
 |
|
![[HF] Maran Illustrated Computers Guided Tour Computers](http://i04.s2.imagehosting.ws/2010-11-11/3744/30mq2zb.jpg)
Comments (0)
All
