Imaginary numbers: an anthology of marvelous mathematical stories, diversions, poems, and musings

Abstract

Italo Calvino: The Form of Space. Rudy Rucker: A New Golden Age. Lewis Carroll: A Serpent with Corners (from A Tangled Tale). J. A. Lindon: A Positive Reminder. Raymond Smullyan: How Kazir Won His Wife. Alan Lightman: 11 May 1905 (from Einstein's Dreams). Roald Hoffman: Why Does Disorder Increase in the Same Direction of Time as That in Which the Universe Expands? Philip K. Dick: The Golden Man. Hilbert Schenck: The Morphology of the Kirkham Wreck. Abner Shimony: Resolution of the Paradox: A Philosophical Puppet Play. Piet Hein: Parallelism. Douglas Hofstadter Prelude...(from Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid). Stanislaw Lem: The Third Sally, or The Dragons of Probability (from The Seven Sallies of Trurl and Klapaucius). Edwin Abbott Abbott: Concerning Irregular Figures (from Flatland). Andrew Marvell: The Definition of Love. A. K. Dewdney: On Fiddib Har (from The Planiverse: Computer Contact with a Two--Dimensional World). Martin Gardner: The Church of the Fourth Dimension. Stanislaw Lem: The Extraordinary Hotel, or the Thousand and First Journey of Ion the Quiet. Anonymous: Ten Weary, Footsore Travelers. Racter: From The Policeman's Beard Is Half--Constructed. William Gibson: Burning Chrome. Fritz Leiber: Gonna Roll the Bones. Wislawa Szymborska: A Word on Statistics. Tommaso Landolfi: Giovanni and His Wife. Joe Haldeman: The Private War of Private Jacob. Jorge Luis Borges: The Library of Babel. Christian Bok: Enantiomorphosis (A Natural History of Mirrors). Connie Willis: Schwarzschild Radius. Siv Cedering: Letter from Caroline Herschel (1750--1848). Yevgeny Zamyatin: From We. J. G. Ballard: The Garden of Time. Acknowledgments. Permission Acknowledgments.