I am finally mostly recovered from my two-plus week bout of the flu, bronchitis, and asthma. This one definitely took a bit of doing to get past. One positive was that I devoted my down time to reading. I seem to be on my once-every-five-year kick of really trying to understand relativity, quantum mechanics, and Godel’s Incompleteness Theorem. This time I feel like I’m getting it. Of course, I think that every time and then I either don’t have it or have it and then lose it.
However, the books I list below may finally help me get and keep it:
Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson. Immensely enjoyable, very accessible, and even though this is at least the fourth Einstein biography I’ve read, I think it’s the best. And the section on Einstein’s Annus Mirabilis is tremendous. Isaacson nails the explanation of the Special Theory of Relativity. Einstein’s big insight was that time is not an absolute - it is a variant. There is no absolute time. No absolute time keeper.
Cosmic Jackpot - Why Our Universe is Just Right For Life by Paul Davies. This book is a remarkable soup-to-nuts exposition on the universe, the big bang, quantum mechanics, and cosmology. I really enjoyed it. The author is funny, very smart, and provides a tremendous review of current thinking on why the universe really is so perfect for life.
Incompleteness: The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Godel by Rebecca Goldstein. This is an excellent book - I read if for the first time over a year ago and then re-read it right after I read Cosmic Jackpot. The book does an amazing job of walking one through the Incompleteness Theorem and Godel’s life. Wittgenstein and Einstein are also big players. The mathematics, logic, and philosophy are just wonderful.
A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines by Janna Levin. A fun novel that interweaves Godel and Turing (another favorite of mine). The perfect follow-on book to Incompleteness.
I will say my brain is a little tired - it’s definitely been doing lots of push ups.
This entry was posted
on Sunday, January 20th, 2008 at 8:02 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow responses via my RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response or trackback from your site.
Hello. I am 
