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To: acl2-mtg@lists.cc.utexas.edu
Subject: This Week in ACL2
Date: Mon, 04 Oct 2004 14:10:46 -0500
From: Robert Bellarmine Krug 
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Greetings,

This Wednesday I will give a short presentation on,
``The Limits of Mathematics.''  The talk is based
on G. J. Chaitin's book of the same name.  

In 1931 Kurt Goedel used the Liars Paradox to prove
the incompleteness of any formal system sufficiently
powerful to practice mathematics in.  In 1970 Chaitin
used Berry's paradox to make a similar, but
quantifiable, statement.  

I will present a (very) brief overview of these two
results and a couple of their consequences.  The talk
should be accessible to all.

Robert

P.S. A draft of ``The Limits of Mathematics'' can be
found at http://arxiv.org/abs/chao-dyn/9407009.


``One normally thinks that everything that is true is
true for a reason.  I've found mathematical truths
that are true for no reason at all.  These mathematical
truths are beyond the power of mathematical reasoning
because they are accidental and random.''

                        --- Chaitin