Kurt Godel was an intellectual giant. His Incompleteness Theorem turned not only mathematics but also the whole world of science and philosophy on its head. Shattering hopes that logic would, in the end, allow us complete understanding of the universe, Godel's theorem also raised many provocative questions: What are the limits of rational thought? Can we ever fully understand the machines we build? Or the inner workings of our own minds? How should mathematicians proceed in the absence of complete certainty about their results?

A complex figure, Godel was by turns social and reclusive, ambitious and paranoid. A close friend of Albert Einstein, he declined rapidly after Einstein's death, eventually starving himself from his fear of germs. But as Casti and DePauli brilliantly demonstrate. Godel's influence persisted. His work has revolutionized not only mathematics, but philosophy, linguistics, computer science, and even cosmology. In this remarkable book, Casti and DePauli at last bring to life Kurt Godel's eccentric, legendary genius, and his profound intellectual legacy.