life, the universe, and Gödel

[axolotl9]

So I was reading about mathematicians and philosophers, some of whom were both, and came upon the curious story of Karl Gödel. Gödel was a brilliant mathematician and scarcely less brilliant in his philosophical writings. However, like many of his contemporaries, he was also severely eccentric.

His primary quirk was that he thought people would try to poison him through his food. To prevent this, he would only eat food prepared by his wife. (Why did he not prepare his own food? He suspected that as he knew little of domestic tasks, tainted ingredients might be supplied and he'd be none the wiser.) In the end, this lead to his death - when his wife became ill and could no longer prepare his food, he stopped eating and starved to death.

Wacky, eh?

Comments

[johnkzin.livejournal.com]

At least he didn't die from shoving stuff up chicken's butts, like Francis Bacon.

(the "stuff" was ice; he was trying to develop refrigeration; he got sick and died)