There has always been something that attracted me to Japanese art and design. A life is a haphazard collection of seemingly random events. Let me try to remember...
The black and white photos of Zen rock gardens in an old book. A traditional teahouse brought from Japan and reassembled in the garden of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City almost half a century ago. A photo of the Katsura Villa in Kyoto on the cover of a book that called to me from across the room at a Japanese bookstore in Rockefeller Center. A traditional Japanese suite at a hotel in Kitakyushu where I stayed...
Why do these examples of Japanese art and design appeal to me so much? Because I think they emphasize timeless, serene simplicity and provide an oasis of philosophical, contemplative calm in a world of strife and chaos.
It seems to me that mathematicians are attracted to the Platonic world of ideas for precisely the same reason: because the world of eternal truths lifts us above the chaos of this ephemeral world and enables us to see underlying simplicity and order.
I am delighted that this book is being published in Japan where there is a tradition that effortlessly integrates beautiful design with useful function, just like good mathematics does.
Gregory Chaitin
New York, October 2002
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The Limits of Mathematics
published by SiB-access
On the cover: 0 < Ω = ∑p halts 2−|p| < 1 He thought he had THE TRUTH. |
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The Unknowable
also published by SiB-access
On the cover: ωε = ε Il n'y a guère de paradoxe sans utilité. |
