Foundation (Asimov)? I don't think it merits a mention here. Or rather, if it should be included, so should many, many more entries.
Foundation (Asimov)? I don't think it merits a mention here. Or rather, if it should be included, so should many, many more entries.
Well, psychohistory is presented as a sort of mathematics for predicting the future, I think it fits the theme.
Likewise, I'm not sure it's on the list, but starship troopers has a kind of mathematics for government (the military dictatorship with citizen-by-merit is provably optimal, not just a random system).
It fictionalized "math" but still fits the generic idea, IMHO.
I'd push back. Starship Troopers can be argued to be about political science or the like, but there's nothing about the reasoning that's inherently mathematical.
Where I'm more on the fence are about works that rely strongly on mathematical physics, like Poul Anderson's Tau Zero, or the parts of Pohl's Gateway series that most explicitly refer to black holes. I'd still say those are not "mathematical fiction", but at least it's close.
It did have the awesome scene where the fresh post-doc is challenged to integrate some stuff in his head by his new advisor.
"many, many more entries" are included. Moby Dick and War and Peace are in here.