When Einstein Walked with Gödel

Posted on 01 November 2017 by Jim Holt

From Jim Holt, the New York Times bestselling author of Why Does the World Exist , comes an entertaining and accessible guide to the most profound scientific and mathematical ideas of recent centuries in When Einstein Walked withG delExcursions to the Edge of Thought.Does time exist What is infinity Why do mirrors reverse left and right but not up and down In this scintillating collection, Holt explores the human mind, the cosmos, and the thinkers who ve tried to encompass the latter with the former With his trademark clarity and humor, Holt probes the mysteries of quantum mechanics, the quest for the foundations of mathematics, and the nature of logic and truth Along the way, he offers intimate biographical sketches of celebrated and neglected thinkers, from the physicist Emmy Noether to the computing pioneer Alan Turing and the discoverer of fractals, Benoit Mandelbrot Holt offers a painless and playful introduction to many of our most beautiful but least understood ideas, from Einsteinian relativity to string theory, and also invites us to consider why the greatest logician of the twentieth century believed the U.S Constitution contained a terrible contradiction and whether the universe truly has a future. Download When Einstein Walked with Gödel – kino-fada.fr This essay collection was as many such collections are apt to be a very mixed bag Quite a few of the essays, such as the titular piece, were compelling, informative, thought provoking compositions However, in what felt like an attempt to produce a book that hadSomething for everyone , the author proved himself to be a jack of all trades, but a master of none much of the content was unfortunately superficial, unsystematic, and ultimately a bit disappointing Still, plenty of these articles This essay collection was as many such collections are apt to be a very mixed bag Quite a few of the essays, such as the titular piece, were compelling, informative, thought provoking compositions However, in what felt like an attempt to produce a book that hadSomething for everyone , the author proved himself to be a jack of all trades, but a master of none much of the content was unfortu...If you re into stuff like this, you can read the full review.Sock Theory vs String Theory When Einstein Walked with G del Excursions to the Edge of Thought by Jim HoltMy contribution to Holt s Edge of Thoughts in the form of an article too An unauthorised and short version of physics.How did scientists first deduce that the universe had hidden dimensions, dimensions that are curled up so tight we can t see them Until recently SOCK THEORY was the ruling paradigm It was thought that Theodo If you re into stuff like this, you can read the full review.Sock Theory vs String Theory When Einstein Walked with G del Excursions to the Edge of Thought by Jim HoltMy contribution to Holt s Edge of Thoughts in the form of an article too An unauthorised and short version of physics.How did scientists first deduce that the universe had hidden dimensions, dimensions that are curled up so tight we can t see them Until recently SOCK THEORY was the ruling paradigm It was thought that Theodor Kaluza and Oscar Klein deduced the existence of at leas...A delightful set of 24 standard essays and 14 brief ones a page or so on the history of physics and math and current views on their relations The essays highlight issues with Einstein s theory of relativity special and general , quantum mechanics, group theory, infinity and the infinitesimal, Turing s theory of computability, Goedel s incompleteness theorems, prime numbers and the Riemann zeta conjecture, category theory, topology, fractals, and the theory of truth There are no equations, s A delightful set of 24 standard essays and 14 brief ones a page or so on the history of physics and math and current views on their relations The essays highlight issues with Einstein s theory of relativity special and general , quantum mechanics, group theory, infinity and the infinitesimal, Turing s theory of computability, Goedel s incompleteness theorems, prime numbers and the Riemann zeta conjecture, category theory, topology, fractals, and the theory of truth There are no equations, so we have to count on him to convey major discoveries and conflicting interpretations in words alone without distorting the truth From a modest experience with the subject a college course on quantum mechanics long ago and reads in recent years of popularizations by real physicists , I feel comfortable with Holt s knowledge and competence as a science journa...Another good book by Jim Holt he seems interested by the same questions I am we mostly see things similarly a major exception Mathematical Platonism and I like his writing style Here Holt takes on topics of Philosophy, Mathematics, Physics, and Cosmology and he entertains and enlightens Good stuff.Contents Part 1 the Moving Image of EternityTime the Grand Illusion Part 2 Numbers in the Brain, in Platonic Heaven, and in SocietySir Francis Galton, the Father of Statistics and EugenicsPart 3 Mathematics, Pure and ImpureA Mathematical RomancePart 4 Higher Dimensions, Abstract MapsGeometrical CreaturesPart 5 Infinity, Large and SmallGeorg Cantor v David Foster WallacePart 6 Heroism, Tragedy, and the Computer AgeThe Ada Perplex Was Byron s Daughter the First Coder Alan Turing in Lif Contents Part 1 the Moving Image of EternityTime the Grand Illusion Part 2 Numbers in the Brain, in Platonic Heaven, and in SocietySir Francis Galton, the Father of Statistics and EugenicsPart 3 Mathematics, Pure and ImpureA Mathematical RomancePart 4 Higher Dimensions, Abstract MapsGeometrical CreaturesPart 5 Infinity, Large and SmallGeorg Cantor v David Foster WallacePart 6 Heroism, Tragedy, and the Computer AgeThe Ada Perplex Was Byron s...This is a new book of essays columns short pieces by an accomplished writer about philosophy The core essays make it clear that Holt is focusing on the philosophy of science, although the collection is rounded out to include several short reviews, as well as work on the philosophy of language and naming and even the philosophy of BS I am never quite sure what to think of writings like this To start with, the philosophy of science is not science If you have any doubts, go read one of Einstein This is a new book of essays columns short pieces by an accomplished writer about philosophy The core essays make it clear that Holt is focusing on the philosophy of science, although the collection is rounded out to include several short reviews, as well as work on the philosophy of language and naming and even the philosophy of BS I am never quite sure what to think of writings like this To start with, the philosophy of science is not science If you have any doubts, go read one of Einstein s classic papers and see what it is like A related point is that these essays are not really serious philosophy either Philosophy is difficult and frequently very focused It is also fun to work through but it does need to be worked through Go read some of Hilary Putnam s essays to see.So what are these essays They are entertaining and readable They also help to clarify some ideas that many have heard of but few know in detail Einstei...Calling this one done a bit before the end Honestly, the latter essays get a bit tedious There s a lot to love about this book and a few things that kind of grated at my nerves But overall, some of the better chapters were incredible a...TL DR Well written, thoroughly researched and argued collection of essays wrestling with the difficult topics of mathematics Recommended for anyone who wants an accessible but challenging look at some of humanity s deepest problems This book will make you think Disclosure Farrar, Straus, and Giroux provided an advanced electronic copy in exchange for an honest review Review cross posted at my website PrimmLife Review Math and philosophy have always been two sides of the same coin to me On TL DR Well written, thoroughly researched and argued collection of essays wrestling with the difficult topics of mathematics Recommended for anyone who wants an accessible but challenging look at some of humanity s deepest problems This book will make you think Disclosure Farrar, Straus, and Giroux provided an advanced electronic copy in exchange for an honest review Review cross posted at my website PrimmLife Review Math and philosophy have always been two sides of the same coin to me One uses numbers and symbols to build logical arguments, and the other uses words as its tools While the goals lo...I don t normally write a comment regarding the star rating I ve attributed to a book, but in this case I feel I should qualify my rating.For the most part the content of this book is of great quality Had it not been for the tedious set of shorter essays towards the end and the condescending tone I feel the author occasionally exudes this would ve been a 5 star rating.But its not 4 stars either and that is due to the utterly unfortunate choice Jim Holt made to focus almost entirely on the ex I don t normally write a comment regarding the star rating I ve attributed to a book, but in this case I feel I should qualify my rating.For the most part the content of this book is of great quality Had it not been for the tedious set of shorter essays towards the end and the condescending tone I feel the author occasionally exudes this would ve been a 5 star rating.But its not 4 stars either and that is due to the utterly unfortunate choice Jim Holt made to focus almost entirely on the excursions to the edge of thought that occur in a mans brain Seriously, how in the fucking world can you overlook the rest of the population and their contribution to the wealth of human knowledge Of the core essa...I agree with this review Worse, I did not manage to finish the book since the quality interest went rapidly down hill in the second half The first story on the relationship between Einstein and Godel is not uninteresting but lotsdetail can be found in this book which contains an account of his wife s life A minor quip on the hilarious Boganov scandal Wikipedia confirms that the bogus articles were not about string theory as the author mistakenly claims, probably because there was a str I agree with this review Worse, I did not manage to finish the book since the quality interest went rapidly down hill in the second half The first story on the relationship between Einstein and Godel is not uninteresting but lotsdetail can be found in this book which contains an account of his wife s life A minor quip on the hilarious Boganov scandal Wikipedia confirms that the bogus articles were not about string theory as the author mistakenly claims, probably because the...Most of this is Holt not Einstein or GodelOnly the introduction describes how the two great men walked together at Princeton The rest of the chapters are the author s simplified explanations of his understanding of the latest thinking in relativity and mathematics He asserts Godel said time does not exist but doesn t explain the notion well Time need not be a factor in Einstein s equations But that doesn t mean it isn t a consequence of being in a particular frame of reference Otherwise roc Most of this is Holt not Einstein or GodelOnly the introduction describes how the two great men walked together at Princeton The rest of the chapters are the author s simplified explanations of his understanding of the latest thinking in relativity and mathematics He asserts Godel said time does not exist but doesn t explain the notion well Time need not be a factor in Einstein s equations But that doesn t mean it isn ...A collection of essays on interesting topics that unfortunately is less than the sum of its parts Holt is an engaging writer with a rock solid knowledge of mathematical and philosophical topics, and he wrote one of the best books I ve read in a long time Why Does the World Exist , but this one falls far short of that lofty exemplar even though it covers many of the same topics The main problem is that this collects essays that appeared in other publications over a period of many, many year A collection of essays on interesting topics that unfortunately is less than the sum of its parts Holt is an engaging writer with a rock solid knowledge of mathematical and philosophical topics, and he wrote one of the best books I ve read in a long time Why Does the World Exist , but this one falls far short of that lofty exemplar even though it covers many of the same topics The main problem is that this collects essays that appeared in other publications over a period of many, many years at least one clearly dates back to the mid 90 s, and receives an outpouring of footnotes...

English
01 November 2017

Jim Holt