Gödel, Dyson, Rees

5 responses to “Gödel, Dyson, Rees”

1. 

   Todd Huffman

   Aug 6, 2007 at 3:29 am

   Wow, that beaurocratic chain of events sounds about as complicated as the Incompleteness Theorem itself!

   I vividly remember the first time I read that theorem, in the G.E.B. I found Hofstadter’s treatment online…

   "To every w-consistent recursive class k of formulae there correspond recursive class signs r, such that neither uGenr nor Neg(uGenr) belongs to FLG (k) (where u is the free variable of r)"

   Actually, it was in German, and perhaps you feel that it might as well be in German anyway."

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2. 

   jurvetson

   Aug 6, 2007 at 3:38 am

   glad you got the G.E.B. references…. I love that book.

   Reply
3. 

   ptufts

   Aug 6, 2007 at 10:18 am

   I loved this moment – Freeman reminiscing about Godel and the IAS – here’s the same scene from a different angle:

   

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4. 

   Todd Huffman

   Aug 6, 2007 at 12:59 pm

   I heard someone say once "When you read G.E.B. you are joining a club."

   A true statement, you can almost tell from someone’s eyes alone if they have read that book.

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5. 

   PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE

   Aug 6, 2007 at 1:47 pm

   Well well well ! look at who’s here :
   

   photo

   And thanks for the book ; )

   Reply