Science and math

Alonzo Church

Alonzo Church (June 14, 1903 – August 11, 1995) was an American mathematiciancomputer scientistlogician, and philosopher who made major contributions to mathematical logic and the foundations of theoretical computer science. He is best known for the lambda calculus, the Church–Turing thesis, proving the unsolvability of the Entscheidungsproblem (“decision problem”), the Frege–Church ontology, and the Church–Rosser theorem. He also worked on philosophy of language (see e.g. Church 1970). Alongside his doctoral student Alan Turing, Church is considered one of the founders of computer science

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alonzo_Church

Herman Goldstine

Herman Heine Goldstine (September 13, 1913 – June 16, 2004) was a mathematician and computer scientist, who worked as the director of the IAS machine at Princeton University‘s Institute for Advanced Study and helped to develop ENIAC, the first of the modern electronic digital computers. He subsequently worked for many years at IBM as an IBM Fellow, the company’s most prestigious technical position.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Goldstine

What is Russell’s paradox?

Russell’s paradox is based on examples like this: Consider a group of barbers who shave only those men who do not shave themselves. Suppose there is a barber in this collection who does not shave himself; then by the definition of the collection, he must shave himself. But no barber in the collection can shave himself. (If so, he would be a man who does shave men who shave themselves.)

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-russells-paradox/

Price equation

In the theory of evolution and natural selection, the Price equation (also known as Price’s equation or Price’s theorem) describes how a trait or allele changes in frequency over time. The equation uses a covariance between a trait and fitness, to give a mathematical description of evolution and natural selection. It provides a way to understand the effects that gene transmission and natural selection have on the frequency of alleles within each new generation of a population. The Price equation was derived by George R. Price, working in London to re-derive W.D. Hamilton‘s work on kin selectionExamples of the Price equation have been constructed for various evolutionary cases. The Price equation also has applications in economics.

It is important to note that the Price equation is not a physical or biological law. It is not a concise or general expression of experimentally validated results. It is rather a purely mathematical relationship between various statistical descriptors of population dynamics. It is mathematically valid, and therefore not subject to experimental verification. In simple terms, it is a mathematical restatement of the expression “survival of the fittest” which is actually self-evident, given the mathematical definitions of “survival” and “fittest”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_equation

Oskar Morgenstern

Oskar Morgenstern (January 24, 1902 – July 26, 1977) was a German-born economist. In collaboration with mathematician John von Neumann, he founded the mathematical field of game theory as applied to the social sciences and strategic decision-making (see von Neumann–Morgenstern utility theorem).

Companies he served as founder/co-founder of included Market Research Corporation of America, Mathematica and Mathematica Policy Research.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskar_Morgenstern