| Without being asked to do so, a Chinese-American woman's malfunctioning smartphone assistant begins teaching her about math, starting with the importance of the number zero and going up to solving systems of linear equations using Gaussian elimination. Although Gauss and Euclid are mentioned, it is important to the author that the main source cited in the story is The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Arts. In a postscript which follows the story in the collection Small Odysseys in which it was published, the author writes "I was trained in STEM for many years and through that process learned theories, reactions, processes, units, each named in honor of its creator. This creator is usually a genius and a white man from the West. [...] So, the idea of my iPhone story came from there. It's an exploration of old and new technologies, of tutelage, East meets West, genius versus madness, and authenticity versus credit." |
