Carl Sagan's Cosmos and Bertrand Russell

[3.141592]

Hello,

Watching this show for the first time. Just saw episode ten, The Persistence of Memory. When walking through his library of the mind, Carl opens a book that looks like Russell and Whitehead's Principia Mathematica at around 32:45, when talking about hidden logical machinery behind "The simplest thought, like the concept of the number 'one'."

Please can anyone confirm?

 

[phinds]

From your link, I get:

This video is not available in your country.

 

[George Jones]

From your link, I get:

This video is not available in your country.

Interesting. From a previous post, it seems that 3.141592 is in the UK. I can watch the video in Canada.

It is quite plausible that the page is from Principia Mathematica, but I don't know for sure.

Interesting also that Sagan put the book back on the shelf. G.H. Hardy, in A Mathematician's Apology, wrote

I can remember Bertrand Russell telling me of a horrible dream. He was in the top floor of the University Library, about A.D. 2100. A library assistant was going round the shelves carrying an enormous bucket, taking down books, glancing at them, restoring them to the shelves or dumping them into the bucket. At last he came to three large volumes which Russell could recognize as the last surviving copy of Principia Mathematica. He took down one of the volumes, turned over a few pages, seemed puzzled for a moment by the curious symbolism, closed the volume, balanced it in his hand and hesitated...

 

[3.141592]

Thankyou both from replying. I'm sorry the link doesn't work for you both. (Yes, I am from the UK.)

Attached is a screen grab if anyone is interested. I just thought the topic Sagan was speaking of at that moment and the language he was using ('The brain has its own language of logical analysis for checking the consistency of the world', 'Logical machinery behind a seemingly-simple idea like the number 1' etc.) as well as the notation on the page, all reminded me of PM very much.

I only ask of curiousity: after Russell, Sagan is probably my biggest hero so I would be thrilled if Bertie got a nod in Cosmos :)

 

[micromass]

Yes, it is the principia mathematica. No other math book uses these kind of totally unreadable notations.

Here is their proof that 1+1=2 by the way:

 

[3.141592]

Thankyou Micromass. I understand no one uses this notation anymore and even the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy states that modern students of logic will likely find the notation difficult. That, in part, is why it jumped out at me. It sure looked like PM!

Well, Sagan whipping out a Russell book in a mock-up of a human brain has just about made my day, so I think I'm going to log off and go to bed before anything ruins it.

'Night All!

 

[3.141592]

Also, to George Jones: I have never come across this story about Russell before. Thanks for sharing!