Re:The Omega Man: "Math is built on randomness"
by robertk on Thursday November 27, 2008 @10:12AM
(#378697)
I didn't realize the goal was to talk about physics. Consider the first sentence:
He shattered mathematics with a single number. And that was just for starters, says Marcus Chown.
Certainly reading about uncomputable numbers like Chaitin's constant is interesting reading, but my case is that this article is not the right start.
Anyways, foundations and information theory isn't my area of research, so I'll leave it at that.
Re:The Omega Man: "Math is built on randomness"
by yters on Thursday November 27, 2008 @10:18AM
(#378701)
You're right, physics is just part of it, and some of the other links we've posted will give people a better grounding in his theory. Anyways, I appreciate your input, criticism is always welcome, especially from grad students. Best of luck on your studies:)
Anyways, here's what I gather the article is saying:
Pysics depends on maths. Godel's incompleteness theorem (GIT) doesn't necessarily impact physics because physics can just use the untouched part of maths. However, Chaitin says his Omega number impacts all of maths with the same kind of consequence as GIT. Therefore, physics and the TEO is in trouble no matter what part of maths it uses.