[Vardi-list] Jan 12th, 2024: Moshe Vardi - What Came First, Math or Computing?

[Moshe Vardi]

World Logic Day Event: What Came First, Math or Computing?

Moshe Y. Vardi, University Professor and the George Distinguished Service
Professor in Computational Engineering at Rice University

Talk with reception to follow. Remote participation will be available via
Zoom. The link will be sent to those who RSVP.
RSVP: https://vardi.eventbrite.com

ABSTRACT: One of the most famous questions in the philosophy of mathematics
is whether mathematics is discovered or invented. As Timothy Gowers wrote:
“It has been asked over and over again, and it is not clear what would
constitute a satisfactory answer.”

In this talk, I will address this question from the perspective of a
computer scientist. I will argue that the developments of mathematics and
computing has dovetailed each other for thousands of years: Computing begat
math, and math begat computing. Furthermore, both are connected to the real
world via one of the most amazing faculties of the human mind: the capacity
to abstract.

BIO: Moshe Y. Vardi is University Professor and the George Distinguished
Service Professor in Computational Engineering at Rice University. His
research focuses on the interface of mathematical logic and computation —
including database theory, hardware/software design and verification,
multi-agent systems, and constraint satisfaction. He is the recipient of
numerous awards, including the ACM SIGACT Goedel Prize, the ACM Kanellakis
Award, the ACM SIGMOD Codd Award, the Knuth Prize, the IEEE Computer Society
Goode Award, and the EATCS Distinguished Achievements Award. He is the
author and co-author of over 750 papers, as well as two books. He is a
Guggenheim Fellow as well as fellow of several societies, and a member of
several academies, including the US National Academy of Engineering,
National Academy of Science, and the Royal Society of London. He holds nine
honorary titles. He is a Senior Editor of the Communications of the ACM, the
premier publication in computing.

This talk is being held in conjunction with World Logic Day. The
proclamation of World Logic Day by UNESCO, in association with the
International Council for Philosophy and Human Sciences (CIPSH), intends to
bring the intellectual history, conceptual significance and practical
implications of logic to the attention of interdisciplinary science
communities and the broader public.

_______________________________________________
Vardi-list mailing list
Vardi-list@mailman.rice.edu
https://mailman.rice.edu/mailman/listinfo/vardi-list