Dewdney, A K
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1941- ) Canadian mathematician and computer scientist whose sf novel, The Planiverse: Computer Contact with a Two-Dimensional World (1984), intriguingly updates Edwin A Abbott's Flatland (1884); its Flatland protagonist, Yndrd, attempts to penetrate from his world of Arde into an epiphanous "reality beyond reality", making contact as he does with a roundworld Computer programmed to simulate two-dimensional existence (see Dimensions). The portrayal of two-dimensional life provided by Dewdney is a remarkably sustained Thought Experiment – despite some crudities in the actual writing of the book – and is an education in the understanding of Mathematics.
Dewdney is one of the later occupants of Martin Gardner's "Mathematical Games" slot in Scientific American: under Dewdney this was titled "Computer Recreations" and later "Mathematical Recreations". He published three collections of this material, beginning with The Armchair Universe: An Exploration of Computer Worlds (coll 1988). Yes, We Have No Neutrons: An Eye-Opening Tour through the Twists and Turns of Bad Science (1997) examines flawed science and Pseudoscience; the inclusion of SETI as one such example is perhaps controversial. [JC/DRL]
Alexander Keewatin Dewdney
born London, Ontario: 5 August 1941
works
- The Planiverse: Computer Contact with a Two-Dimensional World (New York: Poseidon Books, 1984) [hb/uncredited]
nonfiction (selected)
series
Scientific American
- The Armchair Universe: An Exploration of Computer Worlds (New York: W H Freeman and Company, 1988) [nonfiction: coll: Scientific American: hb/computer-generated fractal]
- The Magic Machine: A Handbook of Computer Sorcery (New York: W H Freeman and Company, 1990) [nonfiction: coll: Scientific American: hb/Alex Pietersen]
- The Tinkertoy Computer and Other Machinations (New York: W H Freeman and Company, 1993) [nonfiction: coll: including articles from Algorithm magazine: Scientific American: hb/photographic]
individual titles
- 200% of Nothing: An Eye-Opening Tour Through the Twists and Turns of Math Abuse and Innumeracy (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1993) [nonfiction: hb/nonpictorial]
- Yes, We Have No Neutrons: An Eye-Opening Tour through the Twists and Turns of Bad Science (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1997) [nonfiction: hb/Irving Freeman]
- Beyond Reason: Eight Great Problems that Reveal the Limits of Science (Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, 2004) [nonfiction: hb/Paul DiNovo]
links
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