"The best and most general version"

I’m still half-buried under tripos marking, but the end is in sight. And I’m Chair of the Examining Board for Parts IB and II this year, which is also not exactly an anxiety-free job. But between times, I’m trying to reorganize and finish the chapters of my book on the Second Theorem. I’m stuck for the moment wondering what exactly to say about “the best and most general version of the unprovability of consistency in the same system” which Gödel so briefly alludes to in the first part of his 1972a note (which repeats a footnote from 1967). Feferman in his editor’s introduction explains things by bringing to bear Jeroslow’s 1973 result. But it isn’t entirely clear to me that this rather esoteric result must be what Gödel had in mind.

Meanwhile, a nerdy footnote. There’s an even better new version out of NoteBook just out (if you are a Mac user, it really is just indispensable, and the academic price is absurdly low).