# Immersive Simulation Can Make Mathematical Structure Visible by Keith Devlin > “What makes immersive 3D virtual environments the perfect medium for learning basic math skills is not that they are created digitally on computers. Nor is it that they are the medium of highly seductive videogames. Rather, it is because they provide a means for simulating the real world we live in, and out of which mathematics arises, and of doing so in a way that brings out and confronts the player (i.e., learner) with the underlying mathematical structure of our world. If Euclid were alive today, this is how he would teach math.” > **— Keith Devlin**, *2007, Edge Annual Question, “What Are You Optimistic About?”* ## Sources and Context - **Direct Edge response and surrounding essay:** [Mathematician; Executive Director, Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford; Author, The Millennium Problems](https://www.edge.org/response-detail/10208) — Edge published this exact passage in its 2007 Annual Question collection, *WHAT ARE YOU OPTIMISTIC ABOUT?*. The response page preserves the surrounding argument and qualifications. - **Complete local collection index:** [[research/Edge 2007 Full Quotation Curation|Edge 2007 Full Quotation Curation]] — retained source-first record for the complete response cohort and this passage's promotion status. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Consciousness Continuity|Consciousness Continuity]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Neurotech|Neurotech]] - **Article:** [[articles/Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer|Consciousness Mapping and Transfer]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Organic-Synthetic Brain Atlas|Organic-Synthetic Brain Atlas]] - **Article:** [[articles/Machine Intelligence from Cortical Networks and the Allen Institute|Cortical Networks]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/simulation|Simulation]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Simulation Hypothesis|Simulation Hypothesis]] - [[wiki/Virtual Reality|Virtual Reality]] - [[wiki/Artificial Intelligence|Artificial Intelligence]] - [[wiki/human-machine interaction|human-machine interaction]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “What makes immersive 3D virtual environments the perfect medium for learning basic math skills is not that they are created digitally on computers. Nor is it that they are the medium of highly seductive videogames. Rather, it is because they provide a means for simulating the real world we live in, and out of which mathematics arises, and of doing so in a way that brings out and confronts the player (i.e., learner) with the underlying mathematical structure of our world. If Euclid were alive today, this is how he would teach math.” — Keith Devlin, 2007, Edge Annual Question, “What Are You Optimistic About?” https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-keith-devlin-immersive-simulation-make-mathematical-structure ```