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Rudy Rucker

Mind Tools: The Five Levels of Mathematical Reality First Edition

by Rudy Rucker (Author)

4.3 17 ratings

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Explores postmodern mathematics, explains the five levels of reality, and discusses new realms such as gigaplexes, pixels, and Hibert space

ISBN-10

0395468108
ISBN-13

978-0395468104
Edition

First Edition
Publisher

Mariner Books
Publication date

January 1, 1988
Language

English
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.5 x 8.25 inches
Print length

328 pages
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Rudy Rucker
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A lighthearted romp through contemporary mathematics...It is shorter and more approachable the Godel, Escher, Bach...Mind Tools is a delight." (San Francisco Chronicle)

"Mind Tools is an original and fascinating look at various aspects of mathematics that is sure to fascinate the nonmathematician." (Isaac Asimov)

About the Author

Rudy Rucker is the author of more than a dozen books on science and science fiction, including "Infinity and the Mind" and "The Fourth Dimension." He is a professor of mathematics and computer science at San Jose State University in California.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mariner Books; First Edition (January 1, 1988)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 328 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0395468108
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0395468104
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.48 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,823,524 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,162 in Mathematics History
- #6,354 in Mathematics (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.3 17 ratings

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Rudy Rucker

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Rudy Rucker has written forty books, both pop science. and SF novels in the cyberpunk and transreal styles. He received Philip K. Dick awards for for the novels in his "Ware Tetralogy". His "Complete Stories," and his nonfiction "The Fourth Dimension" are standouts. He worked as a professor of computer science in Silicon Valley for twenty years. He paints works relating to his tales. His latest novel "Juicy Ghosts" is about telepathy, immortality, and a new revolution. Rudy blogs at www.rudyrucker.com/blog

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4.3 out of 5

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Dr. James V. Blowers

Basically good introduction to mathematical concepts

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 24, 1999

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In this book Rudy Rucker provides a novel way of classifying mathematical thinking - as number, space, logic, infinity, and information. He uses many standard examples and some more unusual ones such as classifying numbers as small, medium, large and inconceivable. It provides a good introduction for the general reader of mathematics, especially on the mathematical frontier, with such concepts as transfinite numbers, Goedel's incompleteness theorem, and cellular automata theory. It does have some errors, such as calling "Every sex act is sacred", "Every sex act is evil" imply "Some evil acts are sacred"; is a valid logical argument; not so. Consider this interpretation: "Every irrational integer is irrational", "Every irrational integer is an integer"; hence "Some integers are irrational". But in general I would recommend this book to the general reader.

24 people found this helpful

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Tommster

Great for anyone interested in tasting the power, insight and beauty of key math and logic ideas.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 9, 2018

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An excellent, interesting and accessible broad-stroke introduction, non-technical but conceptually sophisticated, to various key ideas of math and logic. Great for mental enrichment and for increased math, logic and computer-world appreciation.
Highly recommend for anyone with an active mind and mental life who values definite insights and conceptual breadth, depth, and precision; mental tools that one can actually do things with in the mental and physical and informational worlds.

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joe_whatsayee@yahoo.com

inspiring

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 26, 2004

Verified Purchase

Page 32 gives a chart which shows the evolution of the strands of mathematics from ancient times until the present. This makes the book.

5 people found this helpful

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Catherine Edwards

Understanding of Mind Tools

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 16, 2016

I am a senior in highschool. Our discrete math teacher had us do a book report on a book dealing with math, and I choose "Mind Tools". I'm not the brightest crayon in the box, but Rucker helped me understand more than I expected I would. At some points I was totally lost, but once I read it over, it made more sense. Rucker does a good job explaining his main points but lost me in his ending, where he just came to haunt with his writing. Rucker does well tying his mathematics into real life, using these mind tools everyday, whether we think so or not. Rudy Rucker is a very strong writer and would encourage anyone to read more of his work. I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a good read, and an explaination to mathematics in the outside world, an expansion from the classroom teachings.

2 people found this helpful

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David Williams

Highly accessible thought-provoking book for anyone who loves numbers

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 13, 2014

I read this book as a high school student in the late 1980's and found it fascinating, engrossing and inspiring. I particularly enjoyed mathematics and computing and I credit books like this one as setting me off on a successful career in Computer Science.

I enjoyed this book so much I looked for some other books by the same author, Rudy Rucker, which led me to his 4D works and his reinvention of Flatland (which then led me to find and read Flatland). I still use Rucker's example of a liquor thief from a different dimension to this day when explaining to my own children 2D/3D and 4D concepts.

2 people found this helpful

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Librum

Weird and very interesting book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 8, 2010

There's a lot to whet the mathematical appetite in this book. There is also a bit to frustrate and, in places, annoy that appetite. Overall, MT is a very interesting book. For the most part, it is accessible to any reader. In it's closing section -- on Goedel's theorem, decidability, the halting problem, information and related matter -- things get pretty abstruse fast. If you're not already familiar with these topics, it requires an act of considerable concentration to navigate the formalism of these sections. But doing so rewards the effort. I can't say I got (or bothered to labor over) all the details, but I did get the big picture. And it's a pretty breathtaking view. MT is a book I think I'll return to down the road, having done some additional reading on these topics, to ponder some more. A very thought-provoking read for sure.

3 people found this helpful

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Brandon Whisenhunt

A Very Good Primer That Gets Deep Toward the End

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 29, 2019

A very interesting book in the way that the material is presented, a mixture of mathematical concepts and the author's (Rudy Rucker) personal insights and his equally novel way of classifying mathematical thinking - as number, space, logic, infinity, and information. A very good primer that gets deep toward the end. Well worth the read.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 30, 2008

Rudy Rucker links mathematics to reality and explains 5 ways we can look at it: in terms of number, space, logic, infinity and information. The concepts explained are rather simple to understand and I'm pretty sure everyone will find some things they didn't know before. Later in a book he argues that "reality as information" may be the most correct view and our universe can indeed be a computational process.
I suggest people whose interest touches corners of math read the book, otherwise you may get bored.

6 people found this helpful

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