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Journey to the Edge of Reason by Stephen Budiansky
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Journey to the Edge of Reason

The Life of Kurt Gödel

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Narrator Bob Souer

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Length 8 hours 52 minutes
Language English
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The first major biography of the logician and mathematician whose incompleteness theorems helped launch a modern scientific revolution.

Nearly a hundred years after its publication, Kurt Gödel's famous proof that every mathematical system must contain propositions that are true—yet never provable—continues to unsettle mathematics, philosophy, and computer science. Yet unlike Einstein, with whom he formed a warm and abiding friendship, Gödel has long escaped all but the most casual scrutiny of his life.

An intimate portrait of the scientific and intellectual circles in prewar Vienna and a vivid re-creation of the early days of Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study, Journey to the Edge of Reason is the first biography to fully draw upon Gödel's voluminous letters and writings—including a never-before-transcribed shorthand diary of his most intimate thoughts—to explore his profound intellectual friendships, his moving relationship with his mother, his troubled yet devoted marriage, and the debilitating bouts of paranoia that ultimately took his life. It illuminates the mind-bending implications of Gödel's revolutionary ideas for philosophy, mathematics, artificial intelligence, and man's place in the cosmos.

Stephen Budiansky is a military historian and the author of several books about military history, intelligence and espionage, science, and the natural world, including Battle of Wits, The Bloody Shirt, and Her Majesty's Spymaster. He received a master's degree in applied mathematics from Harvard University and worked on classified military studies as a Congressional Fellow. He is a former editor and writer at U.S. News & World Report and the Atlantic as well as the former Washington editor of the scientific journal Nature. His articles have appeared in the Economist, the New York Times, and U.S. News & World ReporT. He lives in Virginia.

Bob Souer is a full-time professional storyteller and narrator. He has narrated numerous audiobooks, as well as broadcast and nonbroadcast projects for corporations and ministries across North America. You've heard Bob's voice on CBS, PBS, the History Channel, the Military Channel, Audible.com, iTunes, and many other networks and sites. Bob is married to Cinda. They have four children and live in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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