Alors que les intelligences artificielles saturent notre quotidien et que les algorithmes régissent nos vies, il reste un domaine dans lequel les capacités de l'IA sont encore questionnées:celui de l'art. Mais sommes-nous les seuls à avoir le privilège de créer? Une machine ne peut-elle apprendre à peindre, à composer de la musique ou encore à écrire un roman?Pour comprendre comment l'IA peut être créative ou nous aider à nourrir notre propre inventivité, il faut connaître les règles mathématiques qui la façonnent:c'est ce que propose Marcus du Sautoy dans cette épopée aux confins de la science moderne, brillant voyage parmi les arts et les algorithmes.

1, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23... Le Saint Graal de tout mathématicien qui se respecte : trouver la formule qui permettrait de prédire le prochain nombre premier. Marcus du Sautoy appréhende cette quête séculaire en détective : sa Symphonie des nombres premiers se lit comme un polar.

Will a computer ever compose a symphony, write a prize-winning novel, or paint a masterpiece? And if so, would we be able to tell the difference? As humans, we have an extraordinary ability to create works of art that elevate, expand and transform what it means to be alive. Yet in many other areas, new developments in AI are shaking up the status quo, as we find out how many of the tasks humans engage in can be done equally well, if not better, by machines. But can machines be creative? Will they soon be able to learn from the art that moves us, and understand what distinguishes it from the mundane? In The Creativity Code , Marcus du Sautoy examines the nature of creativity, as well as providing an essential guide into how algorithms work, and the mathematical rules underpinning them. He asks how much of our emotional response to art is a product of our brains reacting to pattern and structure, and exactly what it is to be creative in mathematics, art, language and music. Marcus finds out how long it might be before machines come up with something creative, and whether they might jolt us into being more imaginative in turn. The result is a fascinating and very different exploration into both AI and the essence of what it means to be human.
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How do you remember more and forget less?
How can you earn more and become more creative just by moving house? And how do you pack a car boot most efficiently?
This is your shortcut to the art of the shortcut.
Mathematics is full of better ways of thinking, and with over 2,000 years of knowledge to draw on, Oxford mathematician Marcus du Sautoy interrogates his passion for shortcuts in this fresh and fascinating guide.After all, shortcuts haveenabled so much of human progress,whether in constructing the first cities around the Euphrates 5,000 years ago, using calculus to determine the scale of the universe or in writing today''s algorithms that help us find a new life partner. As well as looking at the most useful shortcuts in history- such as measuring the circumference of the earth in 240 BC to diagrams that illustrate how modern GPS works - Marcus also looks at how you can use shortcuts in investing or how to learn a musical instrument to memory techniques. He talks to, among many, the writer Robert MacFarlane, cellist Natalie Clein and the psychologist Suzie Orbach, asking whether shortcuts are always the best idea and, if so, when they use them.
With engaging puzzles and conundrums throughout to illustrate the shortcut''s ability to find solutions with speed,Thinking Betteroffers many clever strategies for daily complex problems.
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The paperback of the critically-acclaimed popular science book by a writer who is fast becoming a celebrity mathematician.

Why do some games seem to be universal while others have a particular connection to the culture of the people playing them?
Around the World in 80 Games is about the mathematics of chance, game theory, gamification, gaming strategies and computer games. Traversing the globe, Marcus du Sautoy looks at the genesis of games new and old, explores how to invent a good game and explains the fascination of a popular lockdown game.
The most simple games endure: board games, card games and dice games have captivated us for centuries and the acclaimed mathematician and author of The Creativity Code (among many others) will once again bring mathematics to the fore with insight and aplomb in Around the World in 80 Games. Lire la suite Fermer

Thinking Better is a celebration of the art of the short cut - and an encouragement to all of us, in our lives and maybe particularly in our business lives, to realise that thinking better is often more successful than working faster . A new invention is often born of someone who can''t be bothered to do things the hard way. Laziness doesn''t mean that you do nothing; often it means you prefer to play rather than work. But play is frequently the place to foster creativity and new ideas rather than the dull mechanistic world of work - it''s one of the reasons that the offices of start-ups are often filled will pool tables and board games as much as desks and computers. There is evidence that humans working in conjunction with computers, literally working as a team, can achieve more than computers can achieve on their own. We may not be able to rely on computers to solve all of our problems - whether personal, or business, or even on a planetary level - but Thinking Better explores how together we just might be able build a successful future together.
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An award-winning mathematician and Oxford professor looks to the arts to uncover the key mathematical structures that underpin both nature and human creativity.

Many of the artists that we encounter are completely unaware of the mathematics that bubble beneath their craft, while some consciously use it for inspiration. Our instincts might tell us that these two subjects are incompatible forces with nothing in common - mathematics being the realm of precise logic and art being the realm of emotion and aesthetics - but what if we''re wrong?
Blueprints asks us to consider that mathematics and art may not be polar opposites after all. Their complementary relationship spans a vast historical and geographic landscape, from the earliest stone circles to Mozart''s obsession with numbers and the radically modern architecture of Zaha Hadid. Whether we are searching for meaning in an abstract painting or finding patterns in poetry, there are blueprints everywhere: symmetry, prime numbers, the golden ratio and more.
In this bold and philosophical exploration of human creativity, Marcus du Sautoy unpacks how we make art, why a creative mindset is vital for discovering new mathematics, and how a fundamental connection to the natural world intrinsically links these two subjects. Lire la suite Fermer

''Brilliant and fascinating. No one is better at making the recondite accessible and exciting'' Bill Bryson Britain''s most famous mathematician takes us to the edge of knowledge to show us what we cannot know. Is the universe infinite? Do we know what happened before the Big Bang? Where is human consciousness located in the brain? And are there more undiscovered particles out there, beyond the Higgs boson? In the modern world, science is king: weekly headlines proclaim the latest scientific breakthroughs and numerous mathematical problems, once indecipherable, have now been solved. But are there limits to what we can discover about our physical universe? In this very personal journey to the edges of knowledge, Marcus du Sautoy investigates how leading experts in fields from quantum physics and cosmology, to sensory perception and neuroscience, have articulated the current lie of the land. In doing so, he travels to the very boundaries of understanding, questioning contradictory stories and consulting cutting edge data. Is it possible that we will one day know everything? Or are there fields of research that will always lie beyond the bounds of human comprehension? And if so, how do we cope with living in a universe where there are things that will forever transcend our understanding? In What We Cannot Know , Marcus du Sautoy leads us on a thought-provoking expedition to the furthest reaches of modern science. Prepare to be taken to the edge of knowledge to find out if there''s anything we truly cannot know.
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''BRILLIANTLY CLEAR AND CAPTIVATING PROSE'' STEPHEN FRY


A WATERSTONES BOOK OF YEAR 2023


An award-winning mathematician explores the maths behind the games we love and why we love to play them.

Where should you move first in Connect 4?
What is the best property in Monopoly?
And how can pi help you win rock paper scissors?
Spanning millennia, oceans and continents, countries and cultures, Around the World in 80 Games gleefully explores how mathematics and games have always been deeply intertwined. Marcus du Sautoy investigates how games provided the first opportunities for deep mathematical insight into the world, how understanding maths can help us play games better, and how both maths and games are integral to human psychology and culture.
For as long as there have been people, there have been games, and for nearly as long, we have been exploring and discovering mathematics. A grand adventure, Around the World in 80 Games teaches us not just how games are won, but how they, and the maths behind them, shape who we are. Lire la suite Fermer

An award-winning mathematician and Oxford professor looks to the arts to uncover the key mathematical structures that underpin both nature and human creativity.

Many of the artists that we encounter are completely unaware of the mathematics that bubble beneath their craft, while some consciously use it for inspiration. Our instincts might tell us that these two subjects are incompatible forces with nothing in common - mathematics being the realm of precise logic and art being the realm of emotion and aesthetics - but what if we''re wrong?
Blueprints asks us to consider that mathematics and art may not be polar opposites after all. Their complementary relationship spans a vast historical and geographic landscape, from the earliest stone circles to Mozart''s obsession with numbers and the radically modern architecture of Zaha Hadid. Whether we are searching for meaning in an abstract painting or finding patterns in poetry, there are blueprints everywhere: symmetry, prime numbers, the golden ratio and more.
In this bold and philosophical exploration of human creativity, Marcus du Sautoy unpacks how we make art, why a creative mindset is vital for discovering new mathematics, and how a fundamental connection to the natural world intrinsically links these two subjects. Lire la suite Fermer