This book is the final version of a course on algorithmic information theory and the epistemology of mathematics and physics. It discusses Einstein and Goedel's views on the nature of mathematics in the light of information theory, and sustains the thesis that mathematics is quasi-empirical. There is a foreword by Cris Calude of the University of Auckland, and supplementary material is available at the author's web site. The special feature of this book is that it presents a new "hands on" didatic approach using LISP and Mathematica software. The reader will be able to derive an understanding of the close relationship between mathematics and physics. "The Limits of Mathematics is a very personal and idiosyncratic account of Greg Chaitin's entire career in developing algorithmic information theory. The combination of the edited transcripts of his three introductory lectures maintains all the energy and content of the oral presentations, while the material on AIT itself gives a full explanation of how to implement Greg's ideas on real computers for those who want to try their hand at furthering the theory." (John Casti, Santa Fe Institute)

This essential companion volume to Chaitin's highly successful "The Limits of Mathematics", also published by Springer, gives a brilliant historical survey of the work of this century on the foundations of mathematics, in which the author was a major participant. The Unknowable is a very readable and concrete introduction to Chaitin's ideas, and it includes a detailed explanation of the programming language used by Chaitin in both volumes. It will enable computer users to interact with the author's proofs and discover for themselves how they work. The software for The Unknowable can be downloaded from the author's Web site.

The papers gathered in this book were published over a period of more than twenty years in widely scattered journals. They led to the discovery of randomness in arithmetic which was presented in the recently published monograph on "Algorithmic Information Theory" by the author. There the strongest possible version of Goedel's incompleteness theorem, using an information-theoretic approach based on the size of computer programs, was discussed. The present book is intended as a companion volume to the monograph and it will serve as a stimulus for work on complexity, randomness and unpredictability, in physics and biology as well as in metamathematics.

The papers gathered in this book were published over a period of more than twenty years in widely scattered journals. They led to the discovery of randomness in arithmetic which was presented in the recently published monograph on "Algorithmic Information Theory" by the author. There the strongest possible version of Goedel's incompleteness theorem, using an information-theoretic approach based on the size of computer programs, was discussed. The present book is intended as a companion volume to the monograph and it will serve as a stimulus for work on complexity, randomness and unpredictability, in physics and biology as well as in metamathematics.

G. J. Chaitin is at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in New York. He has shown that God plays dice not only in quantum mechanics, but even in the foundations of mathematics, where Chaitin discovered mathematical facts that are true for no reason, that are true by accident. This book collects his most wide-ranging and non-technical lectures and interviews, and it will be of interest to anyone concerned with the philosophy of mathematics, with the similarities and differences between physics and mathematics, or with the creative process and mathematics as an art."Chaitin has put a scratch on the rock of eternity."Jacob T. Schwartz, Courant Institute, New York University, USA"(Chaitin is) one of the great ideas men of mathematics and computer science."Marcus Chown, author of The Magic Furnace, in NEW SCIENTIST"Finding the right formalization is a large component of the art of doing great mathematics."John Casti, author of Mathematical Mountaintops, on Godel, Turing and Chaitin in NATURE"What mathematicians over the centuries - from the ancients, through Pascal, Fermat, Bernoulli, and de Moivre, to Kolmogorov and Chaitin - have discovered, is that it ÄrandomnessÜ is a profoundly rich concept."Jerrold W. Grossman in the MATHEMATICAL INTELLIGENCER

This essential companion volume to CHAITIN's highly successful books The Unknowable and The Limits of Mathematics, also published by Springer, presents the technical core of his theory of program-size complexity, also known as algorithmic information theory. (The two previous volumes are more concerned with applications to meta-mathematics.) LISP is used to present the key algorithms and to enable computer users to interact with the author's proofs and discover for themselves how they work. The LISP code for this book is available at the author's Web site together with a Java applet LISP interpreter: http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/CDMTCS/chaitin/ait/"No one has looked deeper and farther into the abyss of randomness and its role in mathematics than Greg Chaitin. This book tells you everything he's seen. Don't miss it."John Casti, Santa Fe Institute, Author of "Goedel: A Life of Logic"

As a teenager, Greg created independently of Kolmogorov and Solomonoff, what we call today algorithmic information theory, a sub ject of which he is the main architect. His 1965 paper on gedanken experiments on automata, which he wrote when he was in high school, is still of interest today. He was also heavily involved in IBM, where he has worked for almost thirty years, on the development of RISC technology. Greg's results are widely quoted. My favorite portrait of Greg can be found in John Horgan's-a writer for Scientific American-1996 book The End 01 Science. Greg has gotten many honors. He was a guest of distinguished people like Prigogine, the King and Queen of Belgium, and the Crown Prince of Japan. Just to be brief, allow me to paraphrase Bette Davis in All About Eve. She said, "Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy talk!" Ladies and Gentlemen, Greg Chaitin! [Laughter & Applause] CRISTIAN CALUDE introducing GREGORY CHAITIN at the DMTCS'96 meeting at the University of Auckland.

This essential companion to Chaitin's successful books The Unknowable and The Limits of Mathematics, presents the technical core of his theory of program-size complexity. The two previous volumes are more concerned with applications to meta-mathematics. LISP is used to present the key algorithms and to enable computer users to interact with the authors proofs and discover for themselves how they work. The LISP code for this book is available at the author's Web site together with a Java applet LISP interpreter. "No one has looked deeper and farther into the abyss of randomness and its role in mathematics than Greg Chaitin. This book tells you everything hes seen. Don miss it." John Casti, Santa Fe Institute, Author of Goedel: A Life of Logic.'

G. J. Chaitin is at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in New York. He has shown that God plays dice not only in quantum mechanics, but even in the foundations of mathematics, where Chaitin discovered mathematical facts that are true for no reason, that are true by accident. This book collects his most wide-ranging and non-technical lectures and interviews, and it will be of interest to anyone concerned with the philosophy of mathematics, with the similarities and differences between physics and mathematics, or with the creative process and mathematics as an art.
"Chaitin has put a scratch on the rock of eternity."
"Jacob T. Schwartz, Courant Institute, New York University, " "USA"
"(Chaitin is) one of the great ideas men of mathematics and computer science."
"Marcus Chown, author of The Magic Furnace, in NEW SCIENTIST"
"Finding the right formalization is a large component of the art of doing great mathematics."
"John Casti, author of Mathematical Mountaintops, on Godel, " "Turing and Chaitin in NATURE"
"What mathematicians over the centuries - from the ancients, through Pascal, Fermat, Bernoulli, and de Moivre, to Kolmogorov and Chaitin - have discovered, is that it ArandomnessU is a profoundly rich concept."
"Jerrold W. Grossman in the MATHEMATICAL INTELLIGENCER""

Chaitin, the inventor of algorithmic information theory, presents in this book the strongest possible version of Goedel's incompleteness theorem, using an information theoretic approach based on the size of computer programs. One half of the book is concerned with studying the halting probability of a universal computer if its program is chosen by tossing a coin. The other half is concerned with encoding the halting probability as an algebraic equation in integers, a so-called exponential diophantine equation.