> Mathematician Gregory Chaitin deeply admires Kurt Gödel’s work, viewing the incompleteness theorems as monumental. However, rather than relying on the liar’s paradox like Gödel, Chaitin reframed incompleteness through information theory and computer size (using the Berry paradox). He argues that Gödel’s proof makes incompleteness look like a rare, pathological exception, whereas his own information-theoretic approach shows it is natural, universal, and everywhere in math.

Google AI. Trust me bros, he said something along those lines. Understanding Godel's proof is terribly challenging even for teenage Chaitin.

Found this lovely anecdote

>Robert J. Marks: So you cold called him then. [...]

>Gregory Chaitin: So he said, “Okay, send me a paper of yours on this topic. I’ll take a look at it. And if like it, maybe I’ll give you an appointment to visit.” [...] So he had taken a look at it and immediately perceived a crucial aspect of the definition of complexity that I was proposing. And he gave me an appointment. [...]

>Gregory Chaitin: I was all set for the great day — and it snowed! And this was the week before Easter. So that’s unusual, a spring snowstorm but it wasn’t a big snowstorm. Nothing was going to stop me from visiting my hero. So there I am in my office at the IBM Watson Center, about to leave. I figured out how much time I needed. About to leave and unfortunately — very unfortunately — the phone rang. It was Gödel ’s secretary saying Gödel is very careful with his health. And because it snowed, he’s not coming in to his office today. And therefore your appointment is canceled.

>So that was a surreal experience. And there was no way to reschedule because I was going to leave just in a few days, heading back to Argentina, to Buenos Aires. But actually this surreal story actually fits better Gödel and his legend, because for example, when Gödel died, they found lots of answers typed up to letters he received, but were never sent. They were never mailed. So there was a surreal quality to Gödel and to communicating with Gödel.

https://mindmatters.ai/2021/03/gregory-chaitins-almost-meeti...