Conversations with a Mathematician
Subtitle: Math, Art, Science and the Limits of Reason
By: by Gregory J. Chaitin
Publisher: Springer London
Published: 2002
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Format: [electronic resource] :
Number of pages: 158
ISBN-13: 9781447111047; 9781447101857
Subjects: Mathematics; Computer science
Other titles: A collection of his most wide-ranging and non-technical lectures and interviews
Description: G. J. Chaitin is at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in New York. He has shown that God plays dice not only in quantum mechanics, but even in the foundations of mathematics, where Chaitin discovered mathematical facts that are true for no reason, that are true by accident. This book collects his most wide-ranging and non-technical lectures and interviews, and it will be of interest to anyone concerned with the philosophy of mathematics, with the similarities and differences between physics and mathematics, or with the creative process and mathematics as an art. "Chaitin has put a scratch on the rock of eternity." Jacob T. Schwartz, Courant Institute, New York University, USA "(Chaitin is) one of the great ideas men of mathematics and computer science." Marcus Chown, author of The Magic Furnace, in NEW SCIENTIST "Finding the right formalization is a large component of the art of doing great mathematics." John Casti, author of Mathematical Mountaintops, on Godel, Turing and Chaitin in NATURE "What mathematicians over the centuries - from the ancients, through Pascal, Fermat, Bernoulli, and de Moivre, to Kolmogorov and Chaitin - have discovered, is that it ÄrandomnessÜ is a profoundly rich concept." Jerrold W. Grossman in the MATHEMATICAL INTELLIGENCER.
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Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Table of contents: title: A Century of Controversy over the foundations of mathematics; title: How to be a mathematician; title: The creative life: science vs art; title: Algorithmic information theory and the foundations of mathematics; title: Randomness in arithmetic; title: The reason for my life; title: Undecidability and randomness in pure mathematics; title: Math, science and fantasy; title: Sensual mathematics; title: Final thoughts.