Computers and the imagination: Visual adventures beyond the edge - Hardcover

Rezensionen

This very rich offering of interesting computer exercises contains a large number of brief chapters clustered into large sections such as Simulation, Speculation, Visualization, and Exploration. Each chapter or subchapter discusses one idea, picture equation, or concept and frequently provides a "pseudocode" for readers to generate examples on their own computers. The book is a stimulat ing potpourri for readers with a fair amount of mathematical and computer knowledge, although it will likely prove to be hard going for novices. The author is a specialist in computer graphics and its applications. Computers and the Imagination is recommended chiefly for academic and large public libraries.
- Jack W. Weigel, Univ. of Michigan Lib., Ann Arbor
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Art and science are conflated in Pickover's new discipline of "scientific visualizations," demonstrated here in a colorful sampler for math hobbyists and puzzle fans, containing computer-generated palindromes, Fibonacci-based structures, artificial spider webs and fractal palaces of wonder. Here is mathematics' beauty made visible, with super computers and a kind of cybernetic aesthetic. Pickover's short, sometimes puzzle-like presentations will give computer-literate readers the eerie feeling of being present at the creation of a mathematical world where imagination finds its tool in the scientific revolution. Pickover is the author of Computers, Pattern, Chaos, and Beauty.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.