+Resource blog

The Cyberiad by Stanisław Lem (translated by Michael Kandel)

Louis A.'s Recommendation for the 510 Club | January 2024

 

The Cyberiad book cover image.

Introducing... The 510 Club! 📕

Christchurch MathsJam and Mathateca are collaborating on an exciting book recommendation project for 2024. Drawing on our local community of recreational maths enthusiasts, every month this year Mathateca promotes a mathsy book recommendation written by one of the regular MathsJam attendees and published in the MathsJam newsletter. The recommender/reviewer is then open to chats about these books at following MathsJam meetings. Without further ado, read the first submission below!

 

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The Cyberiad is a collection of short stories that might be described as science fiction fairy tales.
The setting is loosely feudal with knights, princesses, and dragons but the characters are almost all robots.


The stories provide a light hearted exploration of philosophical concepts and the pros and cons of technological progress.
In particular the Sixth Sally visits the relationship between true and useful information.

 

Ordered priorities for reading to have common material for discussion:

  • How the World was Saved (how does the programmers intent relate the their product) – you can read it online here.

  • The Sixth Sally (featuring a Maxwell’s Daemon of the Second Kind)

  • The Seventh Sally (an inspiration of Sim City)

  • Trurl’s Machine (this one includes arithmetic)

I have enjoyed all of the stories and Prince Ferrix and the Princess Crystal is a personal favourite.


I will admit these stories are at best maths adjacent so hope we don’t mind easing into 510 from the comfort of 891.8537 (338).
They do visit concepts of information, computing, and being good which are all relevant to mathematics.

 

WHAT IS THE 510 CLUB?

The 510 Club is named after the Dewey Decimal classification for Mathematics. It is a book recommendation project facilitated by Mathateca that is published in the monthly Christchurch MathsJam newsletter and on the Facebook page. Each month we feature a mathematical book recommendation, whether that’s a novel, articles / essays, a puzzle book, textbook, biography... just as long as it features maths in some way. Read the above book at your leisure then feel free to comment your thoughts below, or come along to the following Christchurch MathsJam sessions to join in an informal maths/book chat with the reviewer.

We're always looking for suggestions! If you're interested in contributing a book rec one month, please email christchurch@mathsjam.com to sign up.