Universal History of Numbers, Part 3

The Universal History of Numbers III THE COMPUTER AND THE INFORMATION REVOLUTION. The Harvill Press. 2000. Paperback. 410 pages. Index. Translated from the French, and with Notes, by E. F. Harding.In this volume, which completes his history of numbers, Georges Ifrah first of all recapitulates for the reader the steps in mathematical notation which he has made familiar. He considers algebra and its relationship with reason; how it has opened the way to new advances in computation. He introduces the reader to the departure made from the decimal Base 10 to the spread of the binary Base 2, the foundation for computing. He then takes us through the origins and progress of the computer revolution, going back to calculating machines invented more than 100 years ago. He finishes with a synthesis of the development of numbers technology as a function of logic, and concludes with a view to our future with technology.

The title doesn't lie. Mathematician Georges Ifrah's masterpiece, The Universal History of Numbers, is a wonderfully comprehensive overview of numbers and counting spanning all the inhabited continents as far back in time as records will allow us to look. Beyond the ancient Babylonians, Sumerians, and Indians, Ifrah takes us farther south into Africa to examine an early decimal counting system and into ancient Mexico to reconstruct what we can of the Mayan calendar and numerical system. The 27 chapters are chiefly organized by culture, though there are some cross-cultural overviews of topics like letters and numbers.

The author's aim was grand: "to provide in simple and accessible terms the full and complete answer to all and any questions ... about the history of numbers and counting, from prehistory to the age of computers." This led him to wander the world for 10 years, studying and learning; this scholastic pilgrim has returned with amazing stories to tell. Toward the end of the book, Ifrah makes the book truly universal by refuting alien-intervention theories of cultural origins--surely our benefactors would have given us an efficient decimal counting system, zero and all, before helping us build pyramids and such. Such charming ideas, combined with such rigorously researched facts, make The Universal History of Numbers a uniquely important and fascinating volume. --Rob Lightner