The Stochastic Man

Hugo and Nebula Award Finalist: This tale of an encounter between a probability expert and a psychic is “a treasure” (San Francisco Examiner). Lew Nichols can predict the future. Not see the future, just make predictions based on research and statistics. Nichols is damn good at it, though, and his accuracy makes him a valuable addition to Paul Quinn’s political campaign for New York City Mayor and possibly the White House. But, when Nichols meets eccentric millionaire Martin Carvajal, predictions suddenly seem petty and flippant. You see, Carvajal can actually see the future—not trends, not options—a signal line of events stretching out ahead. It’s a gift Nichols can learn from this “mentor,” but at what price? Will knowing the future make the present meaningless?

In the twentieth century's final months, Lew Nichols, administrative assistant to New York City's mayor and expert in stochastic prediction, comes under the influence of Martin Carvajal and develops full powers of seeing the ineluctable future

This book presents a concise treatment of stochastic calculus and its applications. It gives a simple but rigorous treatment of the subject including a range of advanced topics, it is useful for practitioners who use advanced theoretical results. It covers advanced applications, such as models in mathematical finance, biology and engineering.Self-contained and unified in presentation, the book contains many solved examples and exercises. It may be used as a textbook by advanced undergraduates and graduate students in stochastic calculus and financial mathematics. It is also suitable for practitioners who wish to gain an understanding or working knowledge of the subject. For mathematicians, this book could be a first text on stochastic calculus; it is good companion to more advanced texts by a way of examples and exercises. For people from other fields, it provides a way to gain a working knowledge of stochastic calculus. It shows all readers the applications of stochastic calculus methods and takes readers to the technical level required in research and sophisticated modelling.This second edition contains a new chapter on bonds, interest rates and their options. New materials include more worked out examples in all chapters, best estimators, more results on change of time, change of measure, random measures, new results on exotic options, FX options, stochastic and implied volatility, models of the age-dependent branching process and the stochastic Lotka-Volterra model in biology, non-linear filtering in engineering and five new figures.Instructors can obtain slides of the text from the author.

A “dark, restrained, and powerful” mirror of current politics from the Science Fiction Grand Master (Science Fiction Ruminations). In the barren landscape of the late Cambrian period, a penal colony sits high above the ocean on the east coast of what would become the United States. The men—political prisoners—have been sent from the twenty-first century on a one-way ticket to a lifetime of exile. Their lonely existence has taken its toll . . . Jim Barrett was once the physically imposing leader of an underground movement dedicated to toppling America’s totalitarian government. Now he is nothing but a crippled old man, the camp’s de facto ruler due to his seniority. His mind is still sharp, having yet to succumb to the psychosis that claims more and more men each day. So when a new prisoner is transported to the colony—a startlingly young and suspiciously apolitical man—Barrett’s instincts go on high alert. As Barrett reminisces about his revolutionary past, he uncovers the new prisoner’s secrets—and faces a shocking revelation that thrusts him into a future he never dreamed possible . . . “One of the finest writers ever to work in science fiction.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer

"The material covered in this book cuts across the disciplines of Applied Mathematics, Operations Management, Operations Research, and System and Control Theory. It is written for operations researchers, system and control theorists, applied mathematicians, operations management specialists, and industrial engineers."--Jacket.

This self-contained, practical, entry-level text integrates the basic principles of applied mathematics, applied probability, and computational science for a clear presentation of stochastic processes and control for jump diffusions in continuous time. The author covers the important problem of controlling these systems and, through the use of a jump calculus construction, discusses the strong role of discontinuous and nonsmooth properties versus random properties in stochastic systems.