Randomness and Complexity

Book excerpt: The book is a collection of papers written by a selection of eminent authors from around the world in honour of Gregory Chaitin''s 60th birthday. This is a unique volume including technical contributions, philosophical papers and essays. Sample Chapter(s). Chapter 1: On Random and Hard-to-Describe Numbers (902 KB). Contents: On Random and Hard-to-Describe Numbers (C H Bennett); The Implications of a Cosmological Information Bound for Complexity, Quantum Information and the Nature of Physical Law (P C W Davies); What is a Computation? (M Davis); A Berry-Type Paradox (G Lolli); The Secret Number. An Exposition of Chaitin''s Theory (G Rozenberg & A Salomaa); Omega and the Time Evolution of the n-Body Problem (K Svozil); God''s Number: Where Can We Find the Secret of the Universe? In a Single Number! (M Chown); Omega Numbers (J-P Delahaye); Some Modern Perspectives on the Quest for Ultimate Knowledge (S Wolfram); An Enquiry Concerning Human (and Computer!) [Mathematical] Understanding (D Zeilberger); and other papers. Readership: Computer scientists and philosophers, both in academia and industry.