In The Unknowable I use LISP to compare my work on incompleteness with
that of G6del and Turing, and in The Limits of Mathematics I use LISP to
discuss my work on incompleteness in more detail. In this book we'll use
LISP to explore my theory of randomness, called algorithmic information
theory (AIT). And when I say "explore" I mean it! This book is full of
exercises for the reader, ranging from the mathematical equivalent
oftrivial "fin- ger warm-ups" for pianists, to substantial programming
projects, to questions I can formulate precisely but don't know how to
answer, to questions that I don't even know how to formulate precisely!
I really want you to follow my example and hike offinto the wilder- ness
and explore AIT on your own! You can stay on the trails that I've blazed
and explore the well-known part of AIT, or you can go off on your own
and become a fellow researcher, a colleague of mine! One way or another,
the goal of this book is to make you into a participant, not a passive
observer of AlT. In other words, it's too easy to just listen to a
recording of AIT, that's not the way to learn music.