Kurt Gödel

Kurt Gödel was a logician and set theorist.  Usually set theory is not an exciting subject.  Gödel brought this subject some excitement.

You see the whole thing started when people like Gerog Cantor and others started discussing when sets are bigger or smaller than other sets.  See a set with three elements has more members than a set with two elements.  The interesting things happen when sets have a infinite number of elements. For example you can add an element to an infinite set and its "size" (called cardinality) does not change.  People then began to wonder if these infinite sets were in some kind of order.  That is, given an infinite set can we construct the next bigger set, without missing one.

Well, that's where Gödel comes in with his "Incompleteness Theorem."  The incompleteness theorem basically states that the axioms of set theory do not imply an answer.  He proved that the axioms of set theory are incomplete.  The reason Gödel is so praised for this result is that this is not an answer that people search for.  He showed that "I don't know, and you don't either."

It also seemed that Gödel was paranoid.  He often didn't eat because he thought someone was trying to poison him.  He had a companion who made sure he ate.  It's been reported that after the death of his companion died, he died from starvation afraid that he might get poisoned.

Oh the irony, starving yourself to death because you're afraid that food might bring your death.