Gödel by George

Gödel by George - February 2016 Scholarship Essay

I’d love to dine with the Austrian Kurt Gödel, the epitome of crazy geniuses. He turned the world of mathematics upside down by proving that mathematics cannot be both complete and consistent; one of them has to be false. I've always seen math as a field of definites and truth, so his work simultaneously fascinated and unsettled me. Gödel showed me how elegant math can be.

If I met Gödel, however, I wouldn't talk to him about math. I’d ask him, “What really is that loophole in the Constitution?” Some backstory: Before his United States citizenship hearing, Gödel intently studied the Constitution. He remarked to Einstein, his friend, that it contained a flaw which would allow the United States to become a dictatorship, but he never mentioned what the actual flaw was. It bugs me that we don’t know. It’s like an annoying mosquito that you repeatedly try to swat away but keeps returning and causing a nuisance. If Gödel found a loophole, then it really must exist. I admire his relentless obsession with his work and I want a greater insight into that obsession. I would like like to ask Gödel, to put the mystery and my curiosity to rest.