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When Einstein walked with G�odel : excursions to the edge of thought
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When Einstein walked with Gödel : excursions to the edge of thought
- Author / Creator
- Available as
- Physical
- Summary
-
"A collection of essays on philosophy, mathematics, and science, and the people who pursue them"--
Details
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- Creator
- Jim Holt
- Format
- Books
- Language
- English
- Publication
-
- First edition
- New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018
- ©2018
- Physical Details
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- xi, 368 pages ; 24 cm
- ISBNs
- 9780374146702, 0374146705, 9780374717841
- OCLC
- on1004376245
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Part I: The moving image of eternity. When Einstein walked with Gödel ; Time -- the grand illusion? -- Part II: Numbers in the brain, in platonic heaven, and in society. Numbers guy: the neuroscience of math ; The Riemann Zeta conjecture and the laughter of the primes ; Sir Francis Galton, the father of statistics ... and eugenics -- Part III: Mathematics, pure and impure. A mathematical romance ; The avatars of higher mathematics ; Benoit Mandelbrot and the discovery of fractals -- Part IV: Higher dimensions, abstract maps. Geometrical creatures ; A comedy of colors -- Part V: Infinity, large and small. Infinite visions: Georg Cantor v. David Foster Wallace ; Worshipping infinity: why the Russians do and the French don't ; The dangerous idea of the infinitesimal -- Part VI: Heroism, tragedy, and the computer age. The Ada perplex: was Byron's daughter the first coder? ; Alan Turing in life, logic, and death ; Dr. Strangelove makes a thinking machine ; Smarter, happier, more productive -- Part VII: The cosmos reconsidered. The string theory wars: is beauty truth? ; Einstein, "Spooky action," and the reality of space ; How will the Universe end? -- Part VII: Quick studies: a selection of shorter essays. Little big man ; Doom soon ; Death: bad? ; The looking-glass war ; Astrology and the demarcation problem ; Gödel takes on the U.S. Constitution ; The law of least action ; Emmy Noether's beautiful theorem ; Is logic coercive? ; Newcomb's problem and the paradox of choice ; The right not to exist ; Can't anyone get Heisenberg right? ; Overconfidence and the Monty Hall problem ; The cruel law of eponymy ; The mind of a rock -- Part IX: God, sainthood, truth, and bullshit. Dawkins and the deity ; On moral sainthood ; Truth and reference: a philosophical feud ; Say anything