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Hey! I just finished reading this book! It was written by a guy who wants to show you just how excited he is about math, so he uses a lot of exclamation points! They’re all over the place! He also uses bold text to get his point across!! And remember, math is just like making love to a woman!!!! Can’t! y!o!u! f!e!e!l! t!h!e! excitement?!?!?!?!?!??!?!
My FSM, Greg … calm down.
OK, Chaitin is a smart guy. No doubt about that. But his writing style sucks. I like that he’s letting his personality show through. Frankly, even when a book is technical in nature, it doesn’t mean that it has to be dry as sand. But Chaitin’s style just rubbed me the wrong way, and that’s disappointing, because when I got to the end and read his final conclusions about the omega number, I sat there and thought, “wait, did I just read what I thought I just read?” It still hasn’t sunk in yet, but the omega number seems like it’s calculable … but it’s not. It’s completely normal (meaning it’s randomly distributed in any base) … but then again, what’s random? Since the book left me with the feeling that he just dropped a big “how do you like me now?” statement at the end but I didn’t quite get it, I want to read it again, but frankly I can’t go through all those “!!!!!” again. I’ll try to do some online research about his claims about the omega number, though, as it sounds intriguing.
Published: 03.21.2006 06:51:19 PM CST