What are you working on? April 2011

jsalvatier

The is the second 'What are you working on?' thread. The last one is here. So here's the question:

What are you working on?

Here are some guidelines

Focus on projects that you have recently made progress on, not projects that you're thinking about doing but haven't started, those are for a different thread.
Why this project and not others? Mention reasons why you're doing the project and/or why others should contribute to your project (if applicable).
Talk about your goals for the project.
Any kind of project is fair game: personal improvement, research project, art project, whatever.
Link to your work if it's linkable

The is the second 'What are you working on?' thread. The last one is here. So here's the question:

What are you working on?

Here are some guidelines

Focus on projects that you have recently made progress on, not projects that you're thinking about doing but haven't started, those are for a different thread.
Why this project and not others? Mention reasons why you're doing the project and/or why others should contribute to your project (if applicable).
Talk about your goals for the project.
Any kind of project is fair game: personal improvement, research project, art project, whatever.
Link to your work if it's linkable

Working through Smullyan's To Mock a Mockingbird.

Why - a while ago I stumbled on one guy who'd managed to get something actually practical and useful from Smullyan's book. I could sort of figure out what it was all about but deeper understanding eluded me. I knew of Smullyan's work through of Hoftstadter but hadn't read any of his books previously. I bought TMaM a while ago but, to be frank, the puzzles had scared me away, until I picked it up again recently, determined to grok the whole thing.

Results - it has led me to revisit The Cartoon Guide to Löb's Theorem, something I wasn't quite expecting to turn up. I don't fully understand it yet, or the link between combinatorial logic and that Theorem, but it's starting to make sense.

Finished it. Strongly recommended.

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