约翰 ·艾伦·保罗士（John Allen Paulos），美国Wisconsin大学的数学博士，现为美国费城Temple大学的数学教授，他出版了许多关于数学的书籍，其中《数盲》（Innumeracy）是《纽约时报》连续18周上榜的全美畅销书，已经被翻译成13种语言出版，另外他所著的A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper 被选为20世纪100本最好的非文学类作品，并被BBC英国广播公司改编为节目，Once Upon a Number则列为《拉美时报》1998年最好图书，他还定期为《纽约时报》、《新闻周刊》、《民族》等国家出版物撰写文章，并且成为ABC新闻网站“谁在计数”的撰稿人，2002年保罗士被授予大学创新奖，2003年获得美国科学促进联合会所颁发的提升公众对科学理解奖。

内容简介:

为什么甚至受过良好教育的人，仍然对数学了解得那么少？数盲的代价是什么？1998年约翰·艾伦·保罗士在他著名的畅销书出版时就声称：没有能力来合理地处理大量数据和概率问题，导致我们误传了政府的政策，扰乱了个人的决定，增加了对形形色色伪科学的感染。《数盲》让我们知道：我们忽视了什么？我们将从何做起？

在充满刺激的关于数的概率的神秘故事的奇闻铁事中，保罗士自如地介入了现代生活的各个层面：从竞选的角逐到运动公的统计，从股票诈骗和报业心理学到节食的医药配方，性别歧视，保险，彩票和药物试验。《数盲》的读者将会领略到一串令人惊讶的事实，一系列有份量的思想，而最重要的是掌握了一个更清晰、更定量化地观察世界的方法。

This is the book that made "innumeracy" a household word, at least in some households. Paulos admits that "at least part of the motivation for any book is anger, and this book is no exception. I'm distressed by a society which depends so completely on mathematics and science and yet seems to indifferent to the innumeracy and scientific illiteracy of so many of its citizens."

But that is not all that drives him. The difference between our pretensions and reality is absurd and humorous, and the numerate can see this better than those who don't speak math. "I think there's something of the divine in these feelings of our absurdity, and they should be cherished, not avoided."

Paulos is not entirely successful at balancing anger and absurdity, but he tries. His diatribes against astrology, bad math education, Freud, and willful ignorance are leavened with jokes, mathematical or the sort (he claims) favored by the numerate.

It remains to be seen if Innumeracy will indeed be able, as Hofstadter hoped, to "help launch a revolution in math education that would do for innumeracy what Sabin and Salk did for polio"--but many of the improvements Paulos suggested have come to pass within 10 years. Only time will tell if the generation raised on these new principles is more resistant to innumeracy--and need only worry about being incomputable. --Mary Ellen Curtin

Book Description:

Dozens of examples in innumeracy show us how it affects not only personal economics and travel plans, but explains mischosen mates, inappropriate drug-testing, and the allure of psuedo-science.

Review:

A Good Look at the NUMBERS!

Numbers - hearing that word makes a lot of people feel a certain numbness in their brains. Well, at least that is true for a rather large portion of the Earth's population. The human populace seems to be divided between those who love numbers and those who love words. There are perhaps a mere handful that can lay claim to loving BOTH with equal passion.

And it is for simply this reason that whenever a Mathematician comes along with a certain passionate feel for language, his works seem to suddenly adorn the shelves of even the most innumerate literary reader. People from one camp, often wonder how the other lives, and thinks. John Allen Paulos happens to be one of those people who has ventured where others of his peerage dare not tread: the world of the Mathematically Illiterate.

In this book, he attempts to look at how numbers simply don't seem to register with some people. In particular, how statistical probability seems entirely unrelated to our associated fears about daily existence. Although this book was written around 1988, and most of the actual numbers may have altered somewhat since that time (the number of people dying annually from smoking, for instance) it is easy to see why a large portion of people simply switch their brains off when numbers are involved: the truth is simply too shocking. Would you ever get into a car, knowing that you had a one in 5,300 chance of dying in an accident? Or, would you ever light up your next cigarette knowing that you had a one in 800 chance of dying as a result of that activity?

J.A. Paulos not only shows you the numbers but also takes a mental microscope to certain misconceptions on what the numbers are telling you. Being blind to figures is one thing - but not seeing things correctly, can sometimes be even more dangerous.

One thing is for certain when you are done reading this book: you WILL look at the world you live in differently. That is, unless you are among those who already use numbers to make sense of the world around you. For me, the book was somewhat of a vindication of my point of view on Life itself. If you want to know anything at all about it and the world you live in - you simply HAVE to look at the NUMBERS!