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Gregory HaytinArgentine-American mathematician and computer scientist
Date of Birth: .
Country:  Argentina |
Content:
- An Argentinian-American Pioneer in Mathematics and Computer Science
- Education and the Haytin Theorem
- Research and Contributions
- Metamathematics and Philosophy
- Legacy and Controversy
- Honors and Affiliations
An Argentinian-American Pioneer in Mathematics and Computer Science
Early Life and InspirationJack Haytin was born in Chicago to Argentinian immigrants and relocated to New York City shortly after. As a young boy, Haytin was captivated by the article "Gödel's Proof" by Ernst Nagel and James R. Newman, published in Scientific American in 1956. Two years later, he read their book of the same name at the New York Public Library. In 1959, inspired by an article in Scientific American's "Amateur Scientist" section, Haytin built a Van de Graaff generator.
Education and the Haytin Theorem
Haytin excelled academically at Bronx High School of Science and City College of New York, where he discovered and formulated his groundbreaking Haytin theorem. In 1966, his family returned to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he worked as a programmer for IBM Argentina. In 1974, Haytin was invited to join the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, where he has remained since. From 1976 to 1985, he worked as a software and hardware engineer on the IBM RISC project.
Research and Contributions
Haytin's research encompasses information theory, computability theory, and the foundations of mathematics. His early work in algorithmic information theory paralleled the pioneering contributions of Andrey Kolmogorov. Haytin introduced the Haytin constant Ω (Omega), a real number whose digits are uniformly distributed and has been interpreted as a measure of the halting probability of a random program. Ω possesses the mathematical property of being definable but not computable.
Metamathematics and Philosophy
Haytin's philosophical interests extend to metaphysics and the philosophy of mathematics, particularly the epistemology of mathematics. In metaphysics, Haytin argues that algorithmic information theory holds the key to understanding problems in fields such as biology (defining life, its origin, and evolution) and neuroscience (the study of consciousness and how thought works). In his later writings, he has championed a position known as digital philosophy. In the epistemology of mathematics, he contends that his discoveries in mathematical logic and algorithmic information theory demonstrate the existence of mathematical facts whose truth cannot be explained by any theory. These facts can only be "proven" by accepting them as axioms without justification. Haytin urges mathematicians to abandon hope of proving such facts and adopt a quasi-empirical methodology.
Legacy and Controversy
Haytin's work has also had practical applications, notably the Haytin algorithm, which employs graph coloring for register allocation in compiler optimization. Some philosophers and logicians have challenged Haytin's philosophical conclusions drawn from his theorems. Logician Torkel Franzén has criticized Haytin's interpretation of Gödel's incompleteness theorems and the "dubious metaphysical account" he gives of them.
Honors and Affiliations
Haytin's contributions have been widely recognized. He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Maine in 1995 and was named an honorary professor at the University of Buenos Aires in 2002. Since 2000, he has also held the position of Adjunct Professor at the University of Auckland.
