Preface	xi
	Acknowledgements	xvii
I.	THIS MATHEMATIZED WORLD	1
	Descartes' Dream	3
	Where the Dream Stands Today	9
	The Limits of Mathematics	13
	Are We Drowning in Digits?	15
	The Stochastized World: A Matter of Style?	18
	Feedback and Control: The Equilibrium Machine	33
	Computer Graphics and the Possibility of High Art	43
II.	THE SOCIAL TYRANNY OF NUMBERS	55
	Mathematics and Rhetoric	57
	The Criterion Makers: Mathematics and Social Policy	74
	The Computerization of Love	87
	Testing	93
	Mathematics as a Social Filter	99
	A "Marxian" Analysis of the Role of Computing in Organizations	105
III.	COGNITION AND COMPUTATION	113
	The Descriptive, Predictive, and Prescriptive Functions of Applied Mathematics	115
	The Intellectual Components of Technology, Mathematics and Computation: Four Lists	122
	Metathinking as a Way of Life	132
	Three Meanings of Computation	139
	What Scientific Computation is for	154
	Why Should I Believe a Computer: Computation as Process and Product	159
	The Whorfian Hypothesis: Ends and Means in Computer Languages	165
	The Programming Milieu	179
IV.	PERSPECTIVES THROUGH TIME	187
	Of Time and Mathematics	189
	Non-Euclidean Geometry and Ethical Relativism	203
	The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Computers. Are We Hooked?	218
V.	MATHEMATICS AND ETHICS	229
	Platonic Mathematics Meets Platonic Philosophy of Religion: An Ethical Metaphor	231
	The Computer Thinks: An Interpretation in the Medieval Mode	240
	Mathematics and the End of the World	262
VI.	PERSONAL MEANINGS	269
	Mathematics and Imposed Reality	271
	Loss of Meaning through Intellectual Processes: Mathematical Abstraction	278
VII.	ENVOI	301
	Bibliography	307
	Index	317