On: What were Einstein and Gödel talking about? (2005)

[ccvannorman]

TIL: - Einstein and Godel were good friends - Einstein coined the term 'photon' - Einstein "failed to earn a master's in physics" - Godel was quite paranoid and weirder than I realized - Godel refused to argue (maths) unless he had an airtight proof of his correctness - Godel discovered a loophole in the constitution that would allow a dictator to rise (timely for 2016!) - Godel is the one who showed Einstein that backwards time travel was permitted according to relativity - Godel's precise cause of death was starvation brought on by paranoia of being poisoned

[ars → ccvannorman]

> was starvation brought on by paranoia of being poisoned

After his wife couldn't make his food anymore, because he trusted only her.

Somehow I find that both sweet and tragic at the same time. That a man can be that paranoid and yet trust someone so completely.

[behnamoh → ars]

John Nash (RIP) was paranoid too.

It seems like this ordinary world is not enough for the genius, so their brains make new worlds and new scenarios (like "you get poisoned if you eat other people's food.")

[behnamoh → behnamoh]

I think they're super creative, and not just in science. In fact, they can come up with super intelligent methods for killing people, including themselves. That's why they're always paranoid, cause they think other people can come up with the same things to kill them.

[selimthegrim → ccvannorman]

When they say doctorate here they actually mean in the old German system Habilitation.

[jrs235 → ccvannorman]

A little discussion on the constitutional flaw from 7+ years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=447852