"Cryptonomicon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Neal Stephenson - Cryptonomicon (The Whole Book))

Alan said, "Look, it's like this: Bertrand Russell and another chap named Whitehead wrote Principia Mathematica .

"Now I know you're pulling my leg," Waterhouse said. "Even I know that Sir Isaac Newton wrote that ."

"Newton wrote a different book, also called Principia Mathematica , which isn't really about mathematics at all; it's about what we would today call physics."

"Then why did he call it Principia Mathematica?"

"Because the distinction between mathematics and physics wasn't especially clear in Newton's day--"

"Or maybe even in zis day," Rudy said.

"--which is directly relevant to what I'm talking about," Alan continued. "I am talking about Russell's P.M., in which he and Whitehead started absolutely from scratch, I mean from nothing, and built it all up--all mathematics--from a small number of first principles. And why I am telling you this, Lawrence, is that--Lawrence! Pay attention!"

"Hmmm?"

"Rudy--take this stick, here--that's right--and keep a close eye on Lawrence, and when he gets that foggy look on his face, poke him with it!"

"Zis is not an English school, you can't do zese kind of sing."

"I'm listening," Lawrence said.

"What came out of P.M., which was terrifically radical, was the ability to say that all of math, really, can be expressed as a certain ordering of symbols."

"Leibniz said it a long time before zen!" protested Rudy.

"Er, Leibniz invented the notation we use for calculus, but--"

"I'm not talking about zat!"

"And he invented matrices, but--"

"I'm not talking about zat eezer!"

"And he did some work with binary arithmetic, but--"

"Zat is completely different!"

"Well, what the hell are you talking about, then, Rudy?"

"Leibniz invented ze basic alphabet--wrote down a set of symbols, for expressing statements about logic."

"Well, I wasn't aware that Herr Leibniz counted formal logic among his interests, but--"

"Of course! He wanted to do what Russell and Whitehead did, except not just with mathematics, but with everything in ze whole world!"

"Well, from the fact that you are the only man on the planet, Rudy, who seems to know about this undertaking of Leibniz's, can we assume that he failed?"

"You can assume anything that pleases your fancy, Alan," Rudy responded, "but I am a mathematician and I do not assume anything."