Gregory Chaitin | |
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 Chaitin in 2008 | |
| Born | (1947-06-25)25 June 1947 (age 77) |
| Nationality | Argentine-American |
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| Website | uba |
Gregory John Chaitin (/ˈtʃaɪtɪn/CHY-tin; born 25 June 1947) is anArgentine-Americanmathematician andcomputer scientist. Beginning in the late 1960s, Chaitin made contributions toalgorithmic information theory andmetamathematics, in particular a computer-theoretic result equivalent toGödel's incompleteness theorem.[2] He is considered to be one of the founders of what is today known as algorithmic (Solomonoff–Kolmogorov–Chaitin, Kolmogorov or program-size)complexity together withAndrei Kolmogorov andRay Solomonoff.[3] Along with the works of e.g.Solomonoff,Kolmogorov,Martin-Löf, andLeonid Levin,algorithmic information theory became a foundational part oftheoretical computer science,information theory, andmathematical logic.[4][5] It is a common subject in several computer science curricula. Besides computer scientists, Chaitin's work draws attention of many philosophers and mathematicians to fundamental problems in mathematical creativity and digital philosophy.
Gregory Chaitin isJewish. He attended theBronx High School of Science and theCity College of New York, where he (still in his teens) developed the theory that led to his independent discovery ofalgorithmic complexity.[6][7]
Chaitin has definedChaitin's constant Ω, areal number whose digits areequidistributed and which is sometimes informally described as an expression of the probability that a random program will halt. Ω has the mathematical property that it isdefinable, with asymptotic approximations from below (but not from above), but notcomputable.
Chaitin is also the originator of usinggraph coloring to doregister allocation incompiling, a process known asChaitin's algorithm.[8]
He was formerly a researcher at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center in New York. He has written more than 10 books that have been translated to about 15 languages. He is today interested in questions ofmetabiology andinformation-theoretic formalizations of the theory ofevolution, and is a member of the Institute for Advanced Studies atMohammed VI Polytechnic University.
Chaitin also writes aboutphilosophy, especiallymetaphysics andphilosophy of mathematics (particularly about epistemological matters in mathematics). In metaphysics, Chaitin claims thatalgorithmic information theory is the key to solving problems in the field ofbiology (obtaining a formal definition of 'life', its origin andevolution) andneuroscience (the problem ofconsciousness and the study of the mind).
In recent writings, he defends a position known asdigital philosophy. In theepistemology of mathematics, he claims that his findings inmathematical logic and algorithmic information theory show there are "mathematical facts that are true for no reason, that are true by accident".[9] Chaitin proposes that mathematicians must abandon any hope of proving those mathematical facts and adopt aquasi-empirical methodology.
In 1995 he was given the degree of doctor of sciencehonoris causa by theUniversity of Maine. In 2002 he was given the title of honorary professor by theUniversity of Buenos Aires in Argentina, where his parents were born and where Chaitin spent part of his youth. In 2007 he was given aLeibniz Medal[10] byWolfram Research. In 2009 he was given the degree of doctor of philosophyhonoris causa by theNational University of Córdoba. He was formerly a researcher atIBM'sThomas J. Watson Research Center and a professor at theFederal University of Rio de Janeiro.
G.J.Chaitin had finished the Bronx High School of Science, and was an 18-year-old undergraduate student at City College of the City University of New York, when he submitted two papers.... In his [second] paper, Chaitin puts forward the notion of Kolmogorov complexity....
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