ABSTRACT:

LETO II, THX-1138, LOGAN 5, AND 3JANE: Numbers in Names in Science Fiction

Mathematical concepts and number signs have become almost intrinsic to the science fiction genre. Classic novels such as Edwin Abbott's Flatland (1884) and H.G. Wells' Time Machine (1895), for example, use mathematical concepts in order to suggest the existence of a higher power or propel us through the "fourth dimension." Additionally, the science fiction penchant for using variable symbols (especially letters of the Greek alphabet) is not a terribly recent development, as evidenced by Aldous Huxley's use of them to designate stations of class in Brave New World in 1932.

In more recent works of science fiction, Roman and Arabic numerals have become wedded to or embedded within the names of key protagonists. Characters such as R2D2 in Lucas' Star Wars saga and the Lady 3Jane in Gibson's Neuromancer bear such names--names that are comprised of two systems of signs, a collision of letters and digits. Such names appear visually and sonically striking on the printed page or movie screen, presenting the reader or viewer with the puzzling feeling of reading a mixed message.

In such cases, numbers in names represent not only the old notion of arithmos tinos, since the name is a signifier that identifies a particular and real-world signified (an individual entity), but also Viete's system of symbolic substitution, a system that expresses signs as variables in relation to other numbers. Additionally, such names exist as codes to be decrypted in the context of the "real" world, a world that serves to create and contain them.