Kolmogorov, Chaitin, and Gödel
Posted by Mark Nelson on 28th November 2005 | Permanent Link
John Allen Paulos writes a nice math column for ABC, and in this issue he takes a short tour through some stuff that all we all know and love. I won’t give away the punchline, because its a short column and you’ll have more fun getting there by reading it. Suffice it to say that he shows how Gregory Chaitin takes complexity and randomness to a very interesting conclusion.
I personally have only the normal mathematical background of an engineer, which means nothing more exciting than a little calculus, statistics, and differential equations. So I get a great kick out of having the work of giants like Gödel explained in a simple fashion - I feel like I’m getting a little peek into a secret room that I’m never going to enter. The column is almost a year old, so maybe you’ve alread seen it, but if not, enjoy this one, and the entire archive.