# ☠️  power rankings  ☠️

By [victory reunion ii](https://paragraph.com/@victory-reunion-ii) · 2022-03-11

---

lotta interesting folks buried in princeton cemetery. plenty of mathematician/physicist types. but **alonzo church** stands out amongst them.

_look_ at this one full sentence from his wikipedia page.

_he is best known for the_ [_lambda calculus_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambda_calculus)_,_ [_church–turing thesis_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church%E2%80%93Turing_thesis)_, proving the unsolvability of the_ [_entscheidungsproblem_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entscheidungsproblem)_,_ [_frege–church ontology_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frege%E2%80%93Church_ontology)_, and the_ [_church–rosser theorem_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church%E2%80%93Rosser_theorem)_._

i said _look_ at it, not _read_ it. especially not out loud. i should have said this earlier, but, _i don’t know what those words do_. i wouldn’t chance it.

though, it checks out that the _entscheidungsproblem_ turned out to be unsolvable. i could’ve taken one look at it and told you that. anyway, thanks to dr. church we all can stop trying.

just one thing … if he proved a problem is unsolvable, did he not then solve that problem? _solve_ means to “_find an answer to, explanation for, or means of effectively dealing with (a problem or mystery)._” giving up is an effective means to deal with a problem. i’ve also been saying that for years.

decide for yourself. but in _my_ book, this man solved an unsolvable problem. he’s in the power rankings.

mmxxii

### \- 70 days -

---

*Originally published on [victory reunion ii](https://paragraph.com/@victory-reunion-ii/power-rankings)*