As you probably know, on April 17, Google launched an online contest for solving a series of 24 puzzles revolving around the book "The DaVinci Code" by Dan Brown.
I will only use the Internet to search for information and I do not have an electronic copy of the book. So far, I have solved the first 3 puzzles, which I found of decreasingly (intrinsic) difficulty.
Why don't I plan to read this best-seller? Some time ago on a long road trip, I listened to some parts of it in an audiobook version. In the chapters of the book that I listened to, Dan Brown mentioned the striking properties of the Golden Ratio. After reading Nature's Numbers by mathematician Ian Stewart, you'll learn not to marvel at some hidden divine meaning behind everything, but rather spend your time trying to understand why things are the way they are.
It looks to me that Dan Brown is hung up on mysteries, secrets, conspiracies, coincidences and finding meaning in anything through various interpretative means. Remember the hidden, secret "Bible codes"? If you are willing to search, you can reveal "a secret that could change the course of mankind forever" in Moby Dick. So maybe this book should be treated entirely as fiction, including the numerous appeals to science. It's precisely this perversion of science that made me decide not to read the book.
My quest is to see how many puzzles I can solve without having read the book.
I will only use the Internet to search for information and I do not have an electronic copy of the book. So far, I have solved the first 3 puzzles, which I found of decreasingly (intrinsic) difficulty.
Why don't I plan to read this best-seller? Some time ago on a long road trip, I listened to some parts of it in an audiobook version. In the chapters of the book that I listened to, Dan Brown mentioned the striking properties of the Golden Ratio. After reading Nature's Numbers by mathematician Ian Stewart, you'll learn not to marvel at some hidden divine meaning behind everything, but rather spend your time trying to understand why things are the way they are.
It looks to me that Dan Brown is hung up on mysteries, secrets, conspiracies, coincidences and finding meaning in anything through various interpretative means. Remember the hidden, secret "Bible codes"? If you are willing to search, you can reveal "a secret that could change the course of mankind forever" in Moby Dick. So maybe this book should be treated entirely as fiction, including the numerous appeals to science. It's precisely this perversion of science that made me decide not to read the book.
Comments
1. The book IS fiction. While some of the facts in there are true a lot of the 'facts' are either in question or invented for the purpose of the story. Dan Brown ever claims that his book is non-fiction. It is written for entertainment.
2. The google contest was to promote the movie not the book. They also are used it to promote their various features.