Strogatz and Townsend explore big math in new book on AI and computation

Applied mathematicians Steven Strogatz and Alex Townsend have released a new book titled Big Math: The Hidden Codes That Run Our World, which explores the intersection of large-scale computation and modern artificial intelligence systems. According to Ars Technica, the work examines how mathematical frameworks underpin technologies ranging from social media algorithms to medical imaging.reportedTwo mathematicians explain how computers help us solve huge problems that our brains cannot handle alone.Strogatz and Townsend argue that existing mathematical frameworks scale effectively to contemporary computational challenges involving billions of parameters. The authors contend that the rise of large language models and chatbots is pushing "big math" beyond the immediate comprehension of its human creators, necessitating a new perspective on these hidden codes.

How we got here

Steven Strogatz is widely recognised for his 1998 paper on small-world networks, co-authored with Duncan Watts, as well as his research into chaos theory and biological synchronicity.reported He previously studied phenomena such as the wobbling of London’s Millennium Bridge and the collective oscillators found in flashing fireflies. Strogatz has also established himself as a science communicator, writing mathematics columns for The New York Times in 2010, 2012, and 2025, and hosting a podcast for Quanta magazine between 2020 and 2021.reported

What is new

The new publication represents a shift towards applied mathematics in the context of modern computing, co-authored with Alex Townsend, a younger colleague at Cornell University who specialises in numerical analysis and deep learning. Strogatz, acting as senior faculty, mentored Townsend, and the two began collaborating after regularly having lunch together in Risley Hall. Strogatz was inspired by Townsend’s course on the top twenty algorithms of the twentieth century, suggesting they co-author a book that evolved from a focus on big matrix calculations to the broader scope of Big Math.

What to watch

The authors highlight that the dominance of mathematics in the modern world was fuelled by the rise of computers, which enabled humans to work with increasingly large numbers beyond the capacity of finite brains. As quantum computing approaches, the scale of these problems continues to grow. Strogatz noted to Ars Technica that many existing mathematical frameworks from centuries past scale perfectly to this current computer moment, handling problems with billions of variables or parameters that cannot be approached mentally.

Availability and limits

The book is available as a published title, offering a structured examination of how applied mathematics operates within systems like machine learning and weather prediction. There are no stated technical limitations on accessing the content, though the material assumes a reader interest in the theoretical underpinnings of computational systems. The authors explicitly frame the work around applied mathematics rather than pure math, targeting those interested in how computers process large-scale data sets that outstrip human cognitive capacity.