I’m completely serious. I love good science fiction, but now I have to reread my old science fiction books if I need a fix.

That’s actually a pretty good hypothesis. I’d accept that there’s a SMALLER influence (but nonzero) of Science Fiction on Mathematics as opposed to Physical Sciences.

My parents were both extremely educated in the Arts & Humanties, with degrees magna Cum Laude and Cum Laude in English Literature from Harvard and Northwestern. Neither knew Math beyond, let’s say, the trig that my Dad taught pilots who were students of him when he was an officer flight instructor in World War II.

Yet, embedded in the Literary cosmos of Brooklyn heights, having my parents take to to cocktail parties at Norman Mailers’s home, and the like, I was indeed exposed to Math through Science Fiction. It motivated me very strongly, certainly more than my schoolteachers.

Specifically, the influences of which I was most aware included:

(1) Clifton Fadiman, editor,
Fantasia Mathematica, 1958

Subtitled “a set of stories, together with a group of oddments and diversions, all drawn from the universe of mathematics,” this anthology is not aimed at the Ph.D. candidate, but rather the layman. As a result, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to enjoy these quirky tales and poems, from Robert Heinlein’s “–And He Built a Crooked House,” a story about the difficulties of 4-dimensional home design. [I undersdtand that an entrepreneur today is selling 4-D real estate rights at a large profit]

(2) That led me to to Heinlein’s “Rocketship Galileo” where the teenager claim to know enough Math, and the father lectures them on how much more they need to learn.

(3) Fantasia Mathematica alterted me to other authors, whom I explored in the local library, and with the assistance of my pranrts who had in excess of 5,000 books in our home, in the same building where Death of a Salesman author Arthur Miller lived.

(4) My Mom gave me a copy of The Space Child’s Mother Goose, by Frederick Winsor, illustrated by Marian Parry, NY: Simon & Schsuter, 1958, which I read and reread until it fell apart. I didn’t “get” all the Math jokes, but they motivated me.

(5) Lewis Carroll.

(6) The Phantom Tollbooth (1961, Alfred A. Knopf) is a children’s book and a modern fairy tale full of wordplay and Math play. Written by Norton Juster and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, both of whom lived in our neighborhood and knew my parents, and thus spoke with me face-to-face.

Granted, I had an unsually good access to the Science Fiction and “mundane” literary world, as my parents edited books, but there must be others as influenced as I was, or even more.

My father, by the way, was:

http://www.magicdragon.com/UltimateSF/authorsP.html#SamPost

A little more on 3 of the authors that John Baez mentions, skewed towards the Math/Science angle. To get the hotlinks, see the web pages from which these are extracted, through
http://www.magicdragon.com/UltimateSF/authors.html

Isaac Asimov, born 2 Jan 1920 Petrovichi Russia, came to US 1923, naturalized 1928, son of Judah and Anna Rachel Berman, married Gertrude Blugerman 2 Jan 1942, children David, Robyn Joan, married Janet Opal Jeppson 30 Nov 1973,
BS Columbia U. 1939, MA 1941, Ph.D. 1948, Boston U. School of Medicine 1949-, Assoc. Prof. Biochemistry 1955-1979, Prof. 1979-
Died 6 April 1992.
Hugo Awards: 1973,1977,1983,1992
Nebula Awards: 1972,1976
Locus Poll Awards: 1973,1983
“The End of Eternity” (1955) is selected and praised in “Science Fiction: The 100
Best Novels” by David Pringle
In the 1976 Locus poll, asking readers to nominate their favorite author, Isaac Asimov came in #2 (with 238 votes), tieing his
leadership position with a similar poll in 1973, a 1971 poll in P.
Schuyler Miller’s book review column in Analog, and
ranking #1 in the 1966 Analog poll.

Ray Bradbury, full name Raymond Douglas Bradbury (1920-):
The Ray Bradbury Page:
Richard Johnston’s and Chris Jepsen’s comprehensive bibliography, with biography, news, quotes, and on-line writings.
The Ray Bradbury Page is a non-profit site and is in no way
connected with Ray Bradbury, Ray Bradbury, Inc., or any book publisher.
If you have any questions or comments, about The Ray Bradbury Page,
please feel free to e-mail me: Chris Jepsen:
Co-Editor, The Ray Bradbury Page
Ray Bradbury: old, invalid
Ray Bradbury @ AlphaRalpha
Bradbury, Ray old, invalid?
Grandmaster of SFWA (and hence Lifetime Active Member of Science Fiction Writers of America) award-nominated SF poems. Ray Bradbury is one of the immortals among us, who will be read a thousand years from now by beings on the planets of a thousand stars.
“The Martian Chronicles” (1950) is selected and praised in “Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels” by David Pringle
“Farenheit 451″ (1953) is selected and praised in “Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels” by David Pringle.
In the 1976 Locus poll, asking readers to nominate their
favorite author, Ray Bradbury came in #14 (with 57 votes), confirming his leadership position at #11 with a similar poll in 1973, #9 in a 1971 poll in P. Schuyler Miller’s book review column in Analog, and ranking #9 in the 1966 Analog poll.
Ray [Douglas] Bradbury, born Waukegan IL 22 Aug 1920, son of Leonard Spaulding Bradbury and Esther Marie Moberg, married Marguerite Susan McClure 27 Sep 1947, children Susan Marguerite, Ramona, Bettina,
Alexandra…
Ray Bradbury has also had a number of distinguished co-authors,
including: Jonathan Vos Post who is
the Co-Webmaster of the Magic Dragon Multimedia domain including The Ultimate Science Fiction Web Guide:
* “Quatrains from The Martian Chronicles”, Ray Bradbury and Jonathan V. Post,
[Space and Time, No.81, Spring 1993] ISSN 0271-2512, published twice a year by
Space & Time, 138 W. 70th St. (4B), New York, NY, 10023-4432, in association with
Emerald City Publishing (C.E.O.: Jonathan V. Post), subscriptions were 2/$10.00 (no longer for sale)

Robert Anson Heinlein, born 7 July 1907 in Butler, Missouri,
3rd of seven children of Bam Lyle Heinlein and Rex Ivar Heinlein.
Moved to Kansas City, MO, during childhood. Attended a local junior high school, then Central High School in Kansas City, then a year at a junior college. Gained appointment from Senator James Reed to enter United States Naval Academy (where his next older brother had gone) in 1925. Graduated United States Naval Academy and was commissioned in 1929. Served aboard the Lexington under Captain E. J. King (later commander in chief of U.S. Navy during World War II). Tranferred as gunnery officer to the destroyer Roper. Contracted tuberculosis, was cured, and then retired (involuntarily) from active duty.
At age 27, he needed to supplement his small veteran’s pension. He worked as a silver miner, political campaigner and editor, real estate salesman, studied engineering further, and then entered a writing contest with his first story, “Life-Line”, and his astonishing career as an author began.
He worked at the Philadelphia Naval Air Experimental Station, where he came extremely close to getting the Navy into spaceflight, twice having his prposals killed, once by the head of the Philadelphia Naval Air Experimental Station, and once when President Truman was misinformed at a Cabinet meeting.
He was married for the first time, wrote juvenile novels and
stories for the “slick” magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post.
His novel “Space Cadet” (Scribners, 1948) turned into the television series “Tom Corbett: Space Cadet” — see my website on Science Fiction
Television. TELEVISION
He co-authored the screenplay of the classic film “Destination Moon”, and then was divorced in 1947. Shortly afterwards, he married Virginia Heinlein, who had worked in his section in Philadelphia.
Died: 8 May 1988.
He received four Hugo Awards for Best Novel of the Year:
* Double Star, 1956
* Starship Troopers, 1959
* Stranger in a Strange Land, 1962
* The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, 1966
He also won the first Grand Master Nebula Award of the Science Fiction Writers of America, the Sequoyah Award for the best children’s novel of the year (Have Space Suit–Will Travel),
many awards for blood drives, and a posthumous NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal.
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion,butcher a hog, con a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.
Specialization is for insects.”
Robert A. Heinlein
The Dean of American Science Fiction authors
“The Puppet Masters” (1951) is selected and praised in “Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels” by David Pringle
“The Door Into Summer” (1957) is selected and praised in “Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels” by David Pringle
“Have Spacesuit– Will Travel” (1958) is selected and praised in “Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels” by David Pringle
In the 1976 Locus poll, asking readers to nominate their
favorite author, Robert A. Heinlein came in #1 (with 297 votes), tieing his leadership position with a similar poll in 1973, a 1971 poll in P. Schuyler Miller’s book review column in Analog, and
ranking #2 in the 1966 Analog poll.
Regarding “Job: A Comedy of Justice” [1984] see “Afterlife” in: THEOLOGY
Robert A. Heinlein:
This item from Robert A. Heinlein was read as a speech by Robert A. Heinlein’s widow, Virginia Heinlein, when he was posthumously awarded NASA’s Distinguished Public Service Medal on October 6, 1988.
It was written in 1952, but its truths remain essentially unchanged.
THIS I BELIEVE
“I am not going to talk about religious beliefs but about matters so obvious that it has gone out of style to mention them. I believe in my neighbors. I know their faults, and I know that their virtues far outweigh their faults….

Is this because I’m too interested in physics to count as a “pure” mathematician?

By the way, Greg Egan is darn good at math.

See also:

Mathematics and Science Fiction
The Fire in the Equations
Dartmouth College Course 18
Winter 1999 (12 Hour)
Professors: Davies and Trout
http://www.math.dartmouth.edu/archive/c18w99/public_html/

Note: This is not the entire list of works of Mathematical Fiction.
What you see below is the subset that meets the following criteria:
Genre=Science Fiction
265 matches found out of 598 entries

http://math.cofc.edu/faculty/kasman/MATHFICT/search.php?go=yes&genre=sf&orderby=title

I like science fiction just fine, myself, though I don’t read very much of it any more. I’ve read 35 of the 50 books on Mark CC’s list.