New Comic Book About Logic, Math, and Madness 99
areYouAHypnotist writes to tell us the New York Times has the scoop on a new comic book about the quest for logical certainty in mathematics. "The story spans the decades from the late 19th century to World War II, a period when the nature of mathematical truth was being furiously debated. The stellar cast, headed up by Bertrand Russell, includes the greatest philosophers, logicians and mathematicians of the era, along with sundry wives and mistresses, plus a couple of homicidal maniacs, an apocryphal barber, and Adolf Hitler."
Re:It's like dinosaur comics (Score:4, Interesting)
No, it's more like these two Dresden Codak strips:
Dungeons and Discourse [dresdencodak.com]
Advanced Dungeons and Discourse [dresdencodak.com]
Re:Missed opportunities (Score:5, Interesting)
So there's that, and from what I could tell there is no mention of Gödel's incompleteness theorems, either. Meh.
It does. Even Von Neumann's reaction to it is included. I had the chance to read the Greek version in august, and it is pretty awesome. Both for computer scientists and mathematicians, it is pure win. I'm so glad that it gets published in English as well now, I would HIGHLY recommend this comic book to any geek.
Bipolar = Art; Schizophrenia = Math/Science (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:The ending of the strip is rather disappointing (Score:3, Interesting)
Your arguments intrigue me and I'd like to subscribe to your....
Nah, just kidding. I'm a graduate mathematics student, and I can't make any sense at all of what you said. Does that mean I've already been conditioned by The Man (TM), and that it's too late for me to understand The Truth (TM)?
Re:Maybe it's just an unfortunate quote, but... (Score:5, Interesting)
Are you really so feminist that you assume women MUST HAVE contributed somehow, and if they are not mentioned, it must have been because they were unfairly left out of the story? Just why do you find it so unlikely?
Wishfull thinking. (Score:1, Interesting)
Same way that the GP knows god exists - wishfull thinking. Wishfull thinking allows you to create whatever universe takes your fancy. A univesre created from wishfull thinking does not have to be consistent, it can be anything you want.
I'm not sure why so many people use wishfull thinking to create a universe were every detail of life is watched and controlled by a celestial dungeon daddy. However it does fit nicely with using a human sacrafice on a cross as a scapegoat for your sins because both allow you to ignore what critical thinkers call "personal responsibility".
"Personal responsibility" can make you feel bad, so for example if you're feeling bad about screwing your sister-in-law it's probably due to "personal responsibility" (or you got caught). However if you are a wishfull thinker you don't have to stop to feel good, you just have to admit your sins to god (who already knows anyway) and the bad feelings will go away. Oh wait....my sister-in-law is gourgeous......that can't be right,...I think I just demonstrated that religion is usefull, Nooooooooo!!!!
*you - not you personally.
Re:The ending of the strip is rather disappointing (Score:2, Interesting)
Actually it means you might want to lookup, say "incompleteness theory". Or the subject of this strip, "Bertrand Rusell". His philosophy's more than worthless but he did some actual work in mathematical logic that you really ought to have seen by now.
And by the way, in this argument the person making it (math is inconsistent) is generally considered "the man", as it's the academic and unassailable viewpoint.
Generally the "radical" viewpoint is the one where "every theory is correct" in some way or another. Supposedly that's what quantum mechanics and multiverse theories say. Well not in reality, of course, but certainly in the spiderman cartoon series. And also in the democrat party. After all, just because it goes wrong 100 times does *not* in fact mean that it will go wrong the 101th time. Anyone who claims different must obviously be a racist !