Big Math

The Hidden Codes That Run Our World
Award-winning mathematicians Steven Strogatz and Alex Townsend bring you BIG MATH: the epic story of how maths has sparked today's technological miracles - from Netflix's recommendation algorithm to self-driving cars to artificial intelligence and beyond - while also slipping dangerously from our control.

It's in every photo you post to Instagram, every Google search you make and every prompt you give to ChatGPT .

Big Math - the branch of modern mathematics behind our digital revolution - operates under the hood of these everyday miracles, driving the biggest shifts in how we shop, communicate, live, and think.

Yet the arithmetic itself is not especially new or mysterious: rather, it is made up of humble concepts and processes such as matrices and vectors, networks and Markov Chains, optimization and linear algebra. These basic concepts are the cornerstone of computer science and quantum computing, and they're crucial for aspiring tech workers and ordinary citizens alike to understand if we're to comprehend the changes sweeping the world.

The story of how this little math grew so large, and how it became central to our modern lives, is also one of the great intellectual adventures of all time, with precursors in a bamboo puzzle book in an ancient Chinese tomb and inheritance law in ninth-century Baghdad.

But after a long history of working harmoniously with humans, today this reliable branch of mathematics has slipped the leash. As Big Math has expanded to contend with ever larger problems and ever vaster sets of data, it has also begun to operate in ways that we don't comprehend.

Celebrated mathematicians Steven Strogatz and Alex Townsend ask: what happens when Big Math outgrows us - when it becomes something we no longer understand, only something we witness? And what if it no longer needs us at all?

UK Delivery:

• Free delivery on all orders of £10 or more.
• £1.49 delivery fee on orders below £10.
• UK orders are shipped via Royal Mail 2nd Class.

International Delivery:

• Flat rate delivery charges vary by country.

Dispatch and Delivery Times:

• All orders are shipped from our warehouse in Northampton, UK within 48 hours of receipt during working hours.
• UK mainland orders typically arrive within 3-5 working days via Royal Mail 2nd Class.
• International estimated delivery times:
• Europe & Channel Islands: 7 to 10 working days
• USA: 7 to 15 working days
• Rest of the World: 9 to 21 working days

View our full delivery infomation here.