Austrian mathematician Kurt Godel he was controlled by a brilliant and crazy mind. He was considered one of the most revolutionary mathematicians of the 20th century and already between the ages of 20 and 30 he came up with theories that totally changed the then "rules of the game". Towards the end of his life, however, his madness threw him completely off balance. Paranoid, he refused to eat unless his wife first tasted the food. When she herself was no longer able to do so, Gödel died of starvation.

Kurt friedrich gödel

Kurt Friedrich Gödel was born in 1906 in Brno in what was then Austria-Hungary. From an early age, he was very smart, but also nervous. Due to the frequency and perseverance of his questions, his family nicknamed him Mr. Mr. Warum or Mr. Why - Mr. Why. At an early age in primary school, he contracted rheumatic fever, which he believed caused him lifelong heart problems. He was also an excellent student at both high school and the University of Vienna, where he received his doctorate in 23 at the relatively young age of 1929. His time at university has forever changed his professional and personal life.

Kurt Gödel in 1925

While studying at the University of Vienna, Gödel met and fell in love with Adela Numbursky, a divorced dancer six years older. His parents opposed the relationship, which upset the young man, who was especially close to his mother. Adele was a great support to Kurt. They married 10 years later, in 1938, and Adele remained by his side as a close friend until his death. .

Incomplete sentences

As an extension of his doctoral studies, Gödel published his incompleteness theorems in 1931, revolutionary ideas, including some claims about numbers, which, although true, could never be proved. Incomplete sentences have shaken the mathematical world and, according to the journal Science, have forced mathematicians to doubt what it means to say something is true. Gödel later became one of the contributors to the theory of recursive functions, which was part of the foundations of computers. But his work also intertwined with personal crises. Gödel spent a significant amount of time in a mental health sanatorium in the mid-30s.

Between the two world wars, Gödel was a member of a group of intellectuals and philosophers known as the Vienna Circle. However, when the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938, Gödel and his new wife, Adele, fled to Princeton, New Jersey, where they lived until his death in 1978.

Albert Einstein

In Princeton with Gödel made friends another famous German theorist who lived here, Albert Einstein. The two immigrants shared daily attendance to and from their offices at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and spoke to each other in their native German. It was a friendship of a shared language, general and professional, marked by a certain social isolation. Einstein even accompanied Gödel to his hearing in 1947 in order to obtain American citizenship, which was almost unsuccessful due to Gödel's passionate explanation of the gap in the constitution to the presiding judge. (Fortunately, Gödel's friends cautiously silenced him.)

Portrait of Kurt Gödel

"They didn't want to talk to anyone else," a member of the institute told a New Yorker in a 2005 article about the friendship between the two thinkers. "They just wanted to have fun with each other."

Both were complete opposites. "While Einstein was sociable and smiling, Gödel was serious, lonely and pessimistic," says the New Yorker. Gödel was considered the greatest logic since Aristotle's time, but his taste was more populist than you would expect from a noble thinker. His favorite film was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Over time, Gödel's whims became harder to ignore. He was paranoid, he believed in ghosts, he was afraid of poisoning, and he was convinced that visiting mathematicians could try to get rid of him. According to the New Yorker, his diet consisted of "butter, baby food and laxatives."

He suffered from hallucinations and notions of certain forces

After Einstein died in 1955, Gödel became even more confined. If people wanted to talk to him, they had to call him first, even though they were in the same building. When he wanted to avoid people, he planned a meeting place, but did not come. Gödel won the National Medal of Science in 1975, but refused to attend a ceremony in Washington, DC, where President Gerald Ford was to receive the award, despite the offer of a private car to take him there. He was so afraid he would get sick that he was wearing a ski helmet outside that covered his nose. He ate only the food she had prepared for him and tasted by his faithful wife Adele.

Tomb of Kurt Gödel

"He had episodes with hallucinations and vaguely spoke of certain forces operating in the world and 'directly absorbing the good,'" the New Yorker said. "Fearing that there was a conspiracy to poison him, he persistently refused to eat." When Adele was hospitalized for a long time at the end of 1977, Gödel stopped eating altogether. He became a walking skeleton and was admitted to Princeton Hospital in late 1977. He succumbed to starvation two weeks later. His death certificate stated that he had died of "malnutrition caused by a personality disorder." At that time he was 71 years old and weighed less than 30 kg.

Tip from Sueneé Universe

Rupert Sheldrake: Misconceptions of Science

In this book, Rupert Sheldrake will show you that science is bound by assumptions that have turned into dogmas. The "scientific worldview" has become a collection of mere conjectures and beliefs. According to him, all reality is material or physical, and the world is a machine made of inanimate matter. According to this view, nature lacks any meaning, and consciousness is nothing more than a physical activity of the brain. Free will is an illusion and God exists only as an idea in the human mind, trapped in our skull.

Rupert Sheldrake scientifically explores these dogmas and provides convincing evidence that science would do better without them - it would be freer, more interesting and more fun.

Rupert Sheldrake: Misconceptions of Science