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There's a science fiction story in which a character is using a probability algorithm to restore a smashed stained glass window. As the story progresses, he begins to leave more and more of the pieces out, trying to simplify the problem. Then he gets batty and leaves still more and more out, till finally he is found dead at his computer, the window wholly gone, the frame empty, the white light of day pouring in upon him.
What story is this in? Who wrote it?
This is 'The Glass Hammer' by K.W. Jeter. IIRC, the guy reconstructing the glass is a secondary character.
VIDEO: CLOSE-UP of the simulated window, as before. The colors are arranged in a simple geometrical pattern, no apparent symbolism. The light filling the frame is brighter, though: some of the spaces outlining the straight-edged figures are empty, letting the white light from behind pass through unfiltered.
"That's his latest kick." Wyre nodded at the screen. "That the original design of the window may have incorporated actual blank spaces, where no glass was fit into the framework at all. So there'd be no coloration there, just pure light coming through. Some religious significance to that, no doubt."
"This is something that came out of the lab analyses?"
Wyre shook his head. "Something Dolph came up with on his own. A hunch. That's all; just something he felt."
Why not. Schuyler gazed at the pattern of light until Wyre blanked the screen.
and quoting from Amazon
A more mainstream religious organization devotes extensive resources to the reconstruction of stained glass windows, using elaborate computer programs to calculate the probable arrangement of the glass before the windows were destroyed.*
OK, it could be the story "Enchanted Glass". I'm not sure who wrote it, but the stained glass part makes me think of that book.
The book that keeps coming to my mind is "Cryptonomicon" by Neal Stephenson. You can read a synopsis of that book(http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptonomicon)
