Logicomix

Just finished reading the graphic novel Logicomix about Bertrand Russel and the search for truth in logic. It was a decent comic. In truth they made a bit too much of an effort to make it accessible. They left out most of the math and technical jargon and tried to make it a story about people. By doing this I didn't feel like I could make a connection to any of their breakthroughs.

It didn't have anything specifically to do with Astronomy but it did help me come to terms with the idea mathematics as a tool for modeling the universe. I've always bristled a little bit at the idea that something we can't observe is true because the math works. Now that we've seen so many cosmic things that where described first by mathematics I'm a little more comfortable with it but I can't say I understand it. I could never accept the idea of axioms. If these are the foundation of math and logic and we are expected to believe them a priori, doesn't this require a sort of faith that logic would naturally find repellant.

This book didn't really clear up all that but it did make me feel happy that other very smart people are worried about the same thing. The book has Russel say that he's "written a 365 page book that proved that 1 + 1 = 2". I'll never read this book, apparently very few have, but I feel a little better knowing someone wrote it.