FOM: Canonical non-computable number?

[Axel Boldt]

Hi,

I'm new to the list. I teach in Saint Paul, MN, and have recently
written a couple of articles in logic and other fields for the free
encyclopedia at wikipedia.com. I'm not an expert though and every once
in a while I need expert help. Please forgive my naive questions.

I was writing about Chaitin's halting probability and realized that I
don't know any non-computable canonical numbers. Chaitin's Omega is not
canonical because it depends on several arbitrary choices. It isn't
really a constant, it's more a construction. Are there any canonical
non-computable numbers known or is there a quick argument that none can
exist? While I cannot define "canonical" right now, basically I would
call a number canonical if I can be sure that any sufficiently
advanced civilization will have a name for the number or for a variant of
it.

Thanks a lot,
  Axel

-- 
 Axel Boldt  **  axel at uni-paderborn.de  **  math-www.uni-paderborn.de/~axel/
      Wikipedia.com: GNU encyclopedia, everybody can contribute