Computers, Paradoxes and the Foundations of Mathematics

By Gregory Chaitin

Some great thinkers of the 20th century have shown that even in the austere world of mathematics, incompleteness and randomness are rife

Computer Mathematics Logic

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March-April 2002

Volume 90, Number 2
Page 164

DOI: 10.1511/2002.10.164

Everyone knows that the computer is a very practical thing. In fact, computers have become indispensable to running a modern society. But what even computer experts don't remember is that—I exaggerate only slightly—the computer was invented in order to help to clarify a philosophical question about the foundations of mathematics. Surprising? Yes indeed.

Tom Dunne

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