A Horrible Dream
Karen Masterson, PhD
![Karen Masterson, PhD]()
Karen Masterson, PhD
Data Science | Machine Learning | Natural Language Processing
from: A Mathematician's Apology by G. H. Hardy, 1940
Yet how painful it is to feel that, with all these advantages, one
may fail. I can remember Bertrand Russell telling me of a
horrible dream. He was in the top floor of the University Library,
about A.D. 2100 . A library assistant was going round the shelves
carrying an enormous bucket, taking down books, glancing at
them, restoring them to the shelves or dumping them into the
bucket. At last he came to three large volumes which Russell
could recognize as the last surviving copy of Principia Mathematica.
He took down one of the volumes, turned over a few
pages, seemed puzzled for a moment by the curious symbolism,
closed the volume, balanced it in his hand and hesitated.…
Data Science | Machine Learning | Natural Language Processing
6yThe fact that Godel’s incompleteness theorem proved conclusively that Bertrand Russell’s attempt to set forth a complete set of axioms and rules from which all mathematical constructs could be derived was impossible would probably not have helped his case. However, the three-volume work which Russell co-authored with Alfred North Whitehead is important for the history of mathematics.