Kurt Goedel (1906-1978) was an Austrian-American mathematician, who is best known for his incompleteness theorems. He was the greatest mathematical logician of the 20th century, with his contributions extending to Einstein's general relativity, as he proved that Einstein's theory allows for time machines.
The Goedel incompleteness theorem - the usual formal mathematical systems cannot prove nor disprove all true mathematical sentences - is frequently presented in textbooks as something that happens in the rarefied realms of mathematical logic, and that has nothing to do with the real world. Practice shows the contrary though; one can demonstrate the validity of the phenomenon in various areas, ranging from chaos theory and physics to economics and even ecology. In this lively treatise, based on Chaitin's groundbreaking work and on the da Costa-Doria results in physics, ecology, economics and computer science, the authors show that the Goedel incompleteness phenomenon can directly bear on the practice of science and perhaps on our everyday life.
This accessible book gives a new, detailed and elementary explanation of the Goedel incompleteness theorems and presents the Chaitin results and their relation to the da Costa-Doria results, which are given in full, but with no technicalities. Besides theory, the historical report and personal stories about the main character and on this book's writing process, make it appealing leisure reading for those interested in mathematics, logic, physics, philosophy and computer sciences.See also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REy9noY5Sg8
- ISBN10 0203169573
- ISBN13 9780203169575
- Publish Date 14 October 2011 (first published 1 January 2011)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Publisher Taylor & Francis Inc
- Imprint CRC Press Inc
- Format eBook
- Pages 160
- Language English