When Einstein Walked with Gödel

Excusions to the Edge of Thought
Jim Holt, 2018
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Part I: The Moving Image of Eternity
Part II: Numbers in the Brain, in Platonic Heaven, and in Society
Part III: Mathematics, Pure and Impure
8. Benoit Mandelbrot and the Discovery of Fractals
p. 92
Many neighbor “had been detained by their precious china, or inability to sell their Bösendorfer concert grand piano.”
p. 98
“We can easily afford a few great scientists doing their own thing.”
Part IV: Higher Dimensions, Abstract Maps
10. A Comedy of Colors
p. 126
It used to be said that a mathematics department was the second cheapest for a university to fund, since its members required only pencils, paper, and wastebaskets. (The cheapest would be philosophers, because they don't need the wastebaskets.)
Part V: Infinity, Large and Small
Part VI: Heroism, Tragedy, and the Computer Age
Part VII: The Cosmos Reconsidered
19. Einstein, “Spooky Action”, and the Reality of Space
p. 231
He dismissed the possibility of voodoo-like, space-defying, nonlocal influences as “spooky actions at a distance” (spukthafte Fernwirkung).
20. How Will the Universe End?
p. 245
Freeman Dyson: “how do you imagine a couple of kilograms of protoplasm in someone's skull being conscious?”
Part VIII: Quick Studies: A Selection of Shorter Essays
Part IX: God, Sainthood, Truth, and Bullshit

Essays