The Bertrand Russell Murder Mysteries, Episode V
“Waiting for Gödel”
In
the last episode, Bertrand Russell tried to cut through the barber's paradox.
Alfred North Whitehead offered to lend Russell his expensive new safety
razor. Russell contemptuously ignored the gesture, continuing to use Occam's
razor. Whitehead was aghast. He felt that Russell's snub cut two ways.
Moments later, Russell came upon a masked genius hiding behind a giant sheet of used graph paper. Quietly he prepared to reveal the identity of the mastermind behind the plot.
“It's Gödel,” Russell frowned. “He's behind it. The man is the arch enemy of every set that's axiomatic. He can take a small thing you say and twist it into something without class.”
NEXT TIME: Fermat's Last Napkin
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