THIS collection of essays, written between 1970 and 2007, provides a window into one of the most interesting minds in maths. Aged 15, Gregory Chaitin defined the complexity of a number as the length of the shortest computer program necessary to generate it 鈥� something that can never be known for sure 鈥� and founded a whole field of mathematics on this paradox. The results impinge on fundamental questions such as 鈥淲hat are the limits of what we can know?鈥� and 鈥淚s the brain doing more than a computer?鈥� (Chaitin thinks it is). Mind-blowing, jaw-dropping stuff.
Thinking about Godel and Turing
World Scientific Publishing