It s even more astonishing that virtually none of the topics is discussed in a superficial manner. Godel s Incompleteness Theorem, Turing machines and algorithmic decidability, non-Euclidean geometries and models, Thermodynamics, Dynamic Systems, Game Theory, entropy, and more. The book assumes a degree of mathematical culture that may be expected from a curious undergraduate student. It s good for perusal too. The style is clear and fluid and makes it s easy to grasp a topic at a glance.
Topics take a few page and are mostly independent of one another.
However, the reader would make the most of the book by reading through and depending on the authors selection and sequencing of the topics. Authors profound understanding of the nature of Mathematics and its current developments allowed them to weave a rare variety of topics into a coherent whole whose evolution an interested reader should be wary of missing. Many of us at the Los Alamos Laboratory who were associated with him knew how much he disliked being alone, how he would summon us at odd times to be rescued from the loneliness of some hotel room, or from the four walls of his office after he had exhausted his daily round of long distance calls. One day I mustered the courage to ask him why he constantly wanted company, and his answer gave him away. I then saw the man in his true light.