When Einstein Walked with Gödel: Excursions to the Edge of Thought

by Jim Holt

The one earmark of civilization that is likely to be recognized across the universe is number. In Carl Sagan’s science-fiction novel Contact, aliens in the vicinity of the star Vega beam a series of prime numbers toward earth. The book’s heroine (played by Jodie Foster in the movie version of Contact) works for SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). She realizes, with a frisson, that the prime-number pulses her radio telescope is picking up must have been generated by some form of intelligent life. But what if aliens beamed jokes at us instead of numbers? We probably wouldn’t be able to distinguish the jokes from the background noise. Indeed, we can barely distinguish the jokes in Shakespeare’s plays from the background noise. (Seriously, have you ever laughed during a Shakespeare play?) Just as nothing is more timeless than number, the core of mathematics, nothing is more parochial and ephemeral than humor, the core of laughter.