Cosmology, Mathematics, Truth, Etc.


A recent radio interview with physicist and novelist Janna Levin delves into interesting stuff.

Krista Tippett's public-radio program Speaking of Faith presents wide-ranging interviews that I've often found interesting and moving. The latest program scarcely touches on religion, but is a discussion with theoretical physicist Janna Levin, author of the novel A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines. The novel is a fictionalized account of the lives of the 20th-century mathematicians Kurt Gödel and Alan Turing. I've long known of these men, because their work was important to the foundations of computer science, but Levin's book goes beyond their mathematics into their personal lives (and their disturbing deaths).

This is a fine program that presents philosophical and scientific questions dealing with cosmology, mathematics, truth, belief, intuition, purpose and free will, among other things. (There is some kind of time warp that allows all of this to fit into the 53-minute program. The unedited interview fits in even more stuff. Both are available for download, and both are worth listening to.)

I think I'm going to have to read the book.

Posted: Sun - January 13, 2008 at 03:11 PM       by email

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