Friday, February 16, 2007

Meta Math!

I've been reading Chaitin's book Meta Math! about Chaitin's Constant. I can't really say I enjoy his writing, but his ideas are very interesting. If he were less of an arrogant, self-centered prat, the book would be more enjoyable.

The section that was most interesting to me was the one in which he argues that trancendental numbers aren't really numbers. This reflects some of my earlier blog posts where I also say those numbers don't exist. Instead, I believe they are functions which generate the numbers to a specified precision.

Anyway, the book is interesting, though poorly written. Maybe some of his other books are better. Probably not. I'm sure they are also full of self-gloating and self-adoration.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi, I was searchin' on the web 'bout the Chaitin's constant and I found your blog...can I ask you if you know when Gregory Chaitin formulated this constant?Which year?I won't stop to say *thank u* 'cause I need to know it for my exam :D I have to search the exact date of this phrase : "no valid program can be obtained as a proper extension of another valid program" eheheh :D
Thank you soooo much :)

Alice