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Meta Maths: The Quest for Omega
 
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Meta Maths: The Quest for Omega (Paperback)

by Gregory J. Chaitin (Author)
3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
RRP: £9.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Atlantic Books (9 Aug 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 184354525X
  • ISBN-13: 978-1843545255
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 1.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 169,539 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #24 in  Books > Science & Nature > Mathematics > Philosophy of Mathematics
    #82 in  Books > Science & Nature > Mathematics > History of Mathematics

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Product Description

Review

"'[A] marvellous book... Disarmingly funny, but also thrillingly clear.' Stephen Poole, Guardian 'Maths' dark secret is out... Chaitin explains why omega, a number he discovered thirty years ago, has him convinced that maths is based on randomness.' Time 'Chaitin presents a vision of mathematics that is strikingly original in a book that is intensely personal... The book contains big, important ideas.' Chicago Tribune"


Stephen Poole, Guardian

'Strange and marvellous... Disarmingly funny, but also thrillingly
clear.'
See all Product Description

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Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.2 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Wade through the bravado and find a jewel?, 27 Aug 2007
By Eanna (Ireland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Meta Maths: The Quest for Omega (Hardcover)
Readers tend to have a problem with Chaitin's style of writing.

While reading, I feel the need to bite my tongue when dealing with the author's familiar, cheery, exclamation-point-based writing, and his self-assured self-importance - this does seem to me to be a man who wishes to impress the reader through friendly bravado. The difficulty is not to let that approach detract from the notions presented within. These are interesting, thought-provoking, and accessible explanations of an area with which I am not, was not, familiar.

It's always a joy to find disparate areas that fuse into something logically solid and coherent. The author has succeeded in perform this magic trick. He offers his ideas as a silver bullet, a cure-all viewpoint, a Theory of Everything that is based on Maths.
Unfortunately, the author's writing style can make his ideas appear just that - a magic trick, performed by a charlatan.

Me, I need to see this man's work criticised for its content. I need to read other books dealing this area. For me, it holds water - and this very fact makes me think that it's exciting and dangerous. But I am not an expert - I'm barely a novice (altho I am a computer programmer for some years now).
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Poorly written book with little new to say, 13 Nov 2008
By M. R. N. Shackelford "mark shackelford" (Worthing, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
What an ANNOYING (?!?) Book. The style of WRITING with many (!) at the end of sentences and randomly BOLD words makes for a very distracting read. And it seems (to me) that Mr. Chaitin has merely found a different way of expressing a well known mathematical proposition - better expressed by the likes of Godel and Turing (who were true mathematical geniuses). He seems to be trying to edge himself into the pantheon of genius on their coat tails. Not so much "standing on the shoulders of giants", as "trying to sneak into the party through the back door".
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars spoiled by bias, egomania and screeching emphasis, 2 Mar 2008
This review is from: Meta Maths: The Quest for Omega (Hardcover)
I bought this book blind, and it is the only math book I have ever simply thrown away.

If the book had all the paragraphs that contained bold text or insistent exclamation marks cut out, and the names of other people working in the same field (Levin, Kolmogorov) added to the index and acknowledged in the text, then it would be worth reading for the math (but there again, it would only be a couple of dozen pages long).
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing book
This book is amazing, and the Central primary idea of the book is just mind bogglingly interesting and important. Read more
Published 9 months ago by John Mcdermott

5.0 out of 5 stars An outstanding book
An outstanding book in meta mathematics, taking us from beginnings of meta mathematics with Hilbert and Godel through to the randomness embodied in omega, the halting probability... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Mr. L. P. G. Evans

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