The
Elastic Fractal – digital image by Noel Giffin. Fractals are generated
with statistical rules for “self similarity”.
Gregory Chaitin has devoted his life to the attempt to understand whatmathematics can and cannot achieve, and is a member of the digital philosophy/digital physics movement. Its members believe that the world is builtout of digital information, out of 0 and 1 bits, and they view the universeas a giant information-processing machine, a giant digital computer. In thisbook on the history of ideas, Chaitin traces digital philosophy back to thenearly-forgotten 17th century genius Leibniz. He also tells us how he discoveredthe celebrated Omega number, which marks the current boundary ofwhat mathematics can achieve. This book is an opportunity to get inside thehead of a creative mathematician and see what makes him tick, and opensa window for its readers onto a glittering world of high-altitude thought thatfew intellectual mountain climbers can ever glimpse.
