In our time, John von Neumann pioneered the computational paradigm in which the results of theoretical science are used to simulate reality on a modern computer. As a consequence, computational methods now pervade all aspects of applied mathematics. Finally, on the topic of patterns Steen concludes as follows. Mathematics is the science of patterns. The mathematician seeks patterns in number, in space, in science, in computers, and in imagination .
Patterns suggest other patterns, often yielding patterns of patterns.
In this way mathematics follows its own logic, beginning with patterns from science and completing the portrait by adding all patterns that derive from the initial ones. They have increased by a millionfold the portfolio of patterns investigated by mathematical scientists. As this portfolio grows, so do the applications of mathematics and the cross-linkages among subdisiciplines of mathematics. Because of computers, we see more than ever before that mathematical discovery is like scientific discovery. It begins with the search for pattern in data - perhaps in numbers, but often in geometric or algebraic structures.