
Metamaths
Gregory Chaitin(Author)
Atlantic Books (Publisher)
Will be published approx. on 9. August 2007
Book
Paperback/Softback
240 pages
978-1-84354-525-5 (ISBN)
Description
One of the world's greatest mathematicians explains his revolutionary hypothesis about the enigma at the heart of maths: omega.
'Chaitin comes across as a kind of mathematical Richard Feynman, intuitive and high-spirited, irreverent and plain-spoken.' -- Peter Pesic, TLS
Meta Maths is Gregory Chaitin's exuberant account of his discovery of 'omega': the infinitely long, exquisitely complex and utterly incalculable representation of randomness and unknowability in mathematics. From Euclid to Goedel to Turing, Chaitin's infectious narrative guides us on a spellbinding journey through the historical advances in maths and science that led to his breakthrough discovery. Once there he takes us further, to the very frontiers of scientific thinking. Meta Maths shows that mathematics is as much art form as logic, as much science as pure reasoning, and sheds light on what we can ultimately hope to know about the universe and the very nature of life.
'Chaitin comes across as a kind of mathematical Richard Feynman, intuitive and high-spirited, irreverent and plain-spoken.' -- Peter Pesic, TLS
Meta Maths is Gregory Chaitin's exuberant account of his discovery of 'omega': the infinitely long, exquisitely complex and utterly incalculable representation of randomness and unknowability in mathematics. From Euclid to Goedel to Turing, Chaitin's infectious narrative guides us on a spellbinding journey through the historical advances in maths and science that led to his breakthrough discovery. Once there he takes us further, to the very frontiers of scientific thinking. Meta Maths shows that mathematics is as much art form as logic, as much science as pure reasoning, and sheds light on what we can ultimately hope to know about the universe and the very nature of life.
Reviews / Votes
Meta Maths is truly idiosyncratic. Informal, chatty and cerebral... it mixes mathematics with Chaitin's outlook on life and philosophy... Great fun. -- Alan Cane * Financial Times *More details
Edition
Main - Print on Demand
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Illustrations
Diagrams throughout
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
230 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84354-525-5 (9781843545255)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Gregory Chaitin works at New York IBM Watson Research Centre, and is a visiting professor in computer science at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He has written eight previous books on maths including Exploring Randomness and The Unknowable.