Exploring Randomness

The book is devoted to a Lisp formalism for exploring the basic ideas, concepts and results on program-size complexity and random sequences. The book contains a wealth of exercises, ranging from the 'mathematical equivalent of finger warm-ups for pianists' to substantial programming projects, from open questions to questions the author cannot even formulate. Highly recommended to anyone interested in understanding algorithmic information theory through programming.

This essential companion to Chaitin's successful books The Unknowable and The Limits of Mathematics, presents the technical core of his theory of program-size complexity. The two previous volumes are more concerned with applications to meta-mathematics.

LISP is used to present the key algorithms and to enable computer users to interact with the authors proofs and discover for themselves how they work. The LISP code for this book is available at the author's Web site together with a Java applet LISP interpreter. "No one has looked deeper and farther into the abyss of randomness and its role in mathematics than Greg Chaitin. This book tells you everything hes seen. Don miss it." John Casti, Santa Fe Institute, Author of Goedel: A Life of Logic.'