(Reading Guide for “The Godfather of Numbers”)
A message from your instructor, Manil Suri
(Note: I may simply make this message from Prof. Ray, who would still be teaching the course. In that case, I’d delete the information below about how she’s withdrawn from the class and gone incommunicado.)
Welcome to the website of Prof. Ray’s Math 123:Ideas in Mathematics course. As you may have seen on the news, there is startling evidence that the last time she taught it, her class was visited by an intelligent extra-physical mathematical form. “The Godfather of Numbers,” this entity’s recently published memoir, refers to the course in several places.
In order to protect students and the university from the harsh glare of publicity that has resulted, Prof. Ray has decided to take an indefinite leave of absence. (This will also free her to fully participate in the scientific and security investigations that have been launched.) She has requested me to conduct the class during this period. While she will remain in touch with me, given the sensitivity of the situation, she requests that no attempts be made to either contact her directly, or uncover personal details about her. In time, she expects to release a full account of her experiences, particularly if she can establish contact with The Godfather.
As for the course itself, she has asked me to thoroughly revamp it. The revelations from The Godfather have shown how misguided our notions regarding numbers are, how completely the numbers have been in control of our lives all along. Math 123 was always about how mathematics shapes the universe; as demonstrated in The Godfather’s memoir though, this is literally true in a way none of us could have never imagined. Consequently, I have adopted the memoir itself as the main textbook, and supplemented it with commentary and material from the former course Prof. Ray used to teach.
Let me add here that I realize The Godfather’s account has not been fully authenticated, and students may want to challenge it in favor of other theories of creation. That’s fine, and should not be a point of contention. The goal of this course is to understand the origins of mathematics and its nexus with our universe. To this end, both Prof. Ray and I feel The Godfather has been very generous to humans, providing insights that they might have never otherwise been able to access.
Syllabus
We will be covering the entire text of “The Godfather of Numbers,” supplemented by notes, discussion topics and activities for each chapter accessible through this link. There is a wealth of information here, which I have compiled not just for Math 123 students, but also for general readers of the memoir, those reading it in a book club, or those participating in a seminar-type course. General readers might want to read the entire book first before looking at this guide. They should feel free to skip, skim through or read this material in detail, depending on their interests. For book club members or participants in a seminar, I have included several discussion questions which should be fun to tackle as a group (I recommend trying some of the exercises as well!). For students enrolled in Math 123, we will be going through most of this material in detail, since it helps put the Godfather’s memoir in perspective, reconciling it with other facets of mathematics, and giving us a broader understanding of the subject. A few of the exercises and some of more deeply mathematical items might be best attempted with the help of an instructor. For the most part, though, I have stuck to Prof. Ray’s rule of limiting the exposition to ideas rather than calculation to make it fully accessible. This, after all, has also been the essential guiding priniciple of the Godfather’s memoir.