Shyam Wuppuluri (editor) - Unravelling Complexity: The Life and Work of Gregory Chaitin

The Life and Work of Gregory Chaitin

UNRAVELLING COMPLEXITY

The Life and Work of Gregory Chaitin

Editors

Shyam Wuppuluri

R N Podar Institute, India

Francisco Antonio Doria

Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Published by

World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Chaitin, Gregory J., honoree. | Wuppuluri, Shyam, editor. | Doria, Francisco Antonio, editor.

Title: Unravelling complexity : the life and work of Gregory Chaitin / editors, Shyam Wuppuluri (R N Podar Institute, India) and Francisco Antonio Doria (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).

Description: New Jersey : World Scientific, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019035011 | ISBN 9789811200069 (hardcover) | ISBN 9789811200076 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Chaitin, Gregory J. | Mathematicians--Argentina--Biography. | Mathematicians--United States--Biography. | Computer scientists--Argentina--Biography. | Computer scientists--United States--Biography. | Computational complexity. | Information theory. | Machine theory. | Philosophy and science.

Classification: LCC QA29.C4 U67 2020 | DDC 510.92 [B]--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019035011

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Copyright 2020 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.

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To Joo Bernardo and Maria Clara,
Virginia and Gregs children

One day in August 2007 I attended a meeting Gdel: Logic and Timeat the Brazilian Center for Research on Physics, organized by Francisco Doria and Mario Novello. I was then a doctoral student at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, working on epistemology, different forms of rationality, and conceptual migration in interdisciplinary research. I had already heard of Gregory Chaitin from a close friend of his, the late Roberto Lins de Carvalho, a logician, whom I befriended during the period we were both teaching at a post-graduate course on giftedness at the State University of Rio de Janeiro. I had also bumped into Gregs work writing a paper on complexity for non-mathematicians and again, a couple of years later, preparing my doctoral research proposal which was initially connected to complexity. I remember I did not attend the Gdel meeting expecting I would meet Gregory Chaitin, but my friend Roberto was thrilled to see Greg again and wanted to introduce us. I thought Greg was in his late seventies or early eighties.

So, there I was, sitting in one of the last rows of the auditorium. When Greg Chaitin was announced, to my surprise I saw a teenager jumping onto the podium, full of energy and waving his arms, overflowing happiness and enthusiasm for life and for the ideas he went on presenting as if he were having an informal conversation during a break between classes.