The Math Gene
Publisher:
Published: 5/17/2001
If people are endowed with a "number instinct" similar to the "language instinct" -- as recent research suggests -- then why can't everyone do math? In The Math Gene, mathematician and popular writer Keith Devlin attacks both sides of this question. Devlin offers a breathtakingly new theory of language development that describes how language evolved in two stages and how its main purpose was not communication. Devlin goes on to show that the ability to…
3.6Overall Score

The Math Gene: How Mathematical Thinking Evolved & Why Numbers Are Like Gossip

This book helped elucidate ideas on the origin of human mathematical ability and how various faculties lie intertwined with our language abilities.  This was helpful information for designing an ...

  • Usefulness to Programmers
    2.0
  • Usefulness to AGI Research
    4.5
  • Fundamentals
    3.5
  • Insights
    4.2

This book helped elucidate ideas on the origin of human mathematical ability and how various faculties lie intertwined with our language abilities.  This was helpful information for designing an AGI system that learns to “do math” in ways that humans do, to the extent that it enables discovery of advanced mathematics in human-like ways.