Huge Numbers: A Story of Counting Ambitiously, from 4½ to Fish 7

By Richard Elwes

A surprising, mind-expanding look at our eternal quest to deal with ever bigger numbers, from prehistoric tally sticks to the latest developments in artificial intelligence

Since humans started to count, gigantic numbers have been a source of fascination and frustration. From stars in the night sky to positions on a chess board, we are surrounded by quantities whose enormous sizes pose major challenges to the way we think about the world. Yet, as Richard Elwes shows, it is by taming numbers previously thought impossible to work with that science and technology have made giant steps forward.

The largest numbers that humans have ever contemplated arise in mathematics. Too enormous to write down in any conventional notation, they nevertheless answer some of the most fundamental questions about our numerical system, from enumerating primes – the essential numbers from which all others are built – to probing the logical foundations of mathematical truth.

Ranging widely across time and space, from early sacred texts that invoke astounding quantities to describe the mystical realms beyond the human plane, through Archimedes’ calculations of the number of grains of sand needed to fill the Universe, to fleets of warehouses packed with computer processors managing data produced on previously unimaginable scales, Huge Numbers is an alternative history of humanity that provides a fresh and unique perspective on the world around us.