Goedel's Way

Kurt Gdel (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 Einsteins general relativity as he proved that Einsteins theory allows for time machines. The Gdel incompleteness theorem - the usual formal mathematical systemscannot 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 Chaitins groundbreaking work and on the da Costa-Doria results in physics ecology economics and computer science the authors show that the Gdel 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 Gdel 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 books writing process make it appealing leisure reading for those interested in mathematics logic physics philosophy and computer sciences.