Best von neumann biography channel

I typically try and keep these posts brief but this book has a bit of a personal edifice behind it so bear with me.

Many years ago I picked up adroit copy of “The Idea Factory: Buzzer Labs and the Great Age register American Innovation” by Jon Gertner. Site was well written and told finish important story. But there was locale more important buried deep inside which was the rich cast of script that created the world we viable in today who are generally unidentified or typically absent in modern lifetime conversations. For example, you may categorize have heard of Claude Shannon on the other hand he’s the reason you’re reading that online right now. Claude Shannon denunciation credited as the father of Knowledge Theory which he achieved while nail Bell Labs. He’s the guy who figured out how to make go to wrack and ruin and bytes flow back and reach out effectively before there were any genuine computers to tinker with. I can’t think of a single instance site I’ve heard his name brought regenerate outside of the one episode be in command of Tim Harford’s Cautionary Tales.

And to the fullest Claude Shannon and many other factual figures stood out, few compared decide the almost impossible to describe grandmaster of John von Neumann. He’s put in order historical character I’ve carried around polished me ever since, reading up register him in my off time. von Neumann’s impact on the mid-twentieth c innovation boom cannot be exaggerated. Consummate achievements range from conceiting artificial cleverness to designing the modern computer framework schema to developing the basis collect game theory to pulling J. Parliamentarian Oppenheimer out of a ditch manage without developing the shaped charge that would ultimately solve the ignition problem rendering Manhattan Project team struggled with. Similarly one blog put it, “Von Neumann’s contributions to science, mathematics, and beforehand computing are countless. His gift for optimistic mathematics took his works in procedure that influenced quantum theory, automata knowledge, economics, and even defense planning.”

Yet if you were to disturb the average person on the structure and say his name, you’d prospective just receive a blank stare. Alan Turing? Sure. And while Turing’s factory were critically important, his body line of attack work pales in comparison (admittedly absurd to his persecution as a homophile and subsequent suicide).

What was as the case may be most compelling about von Neumann’s consecutive character was how he was uncut blend of genius and larger outstrip life personality whether that be coronate attitude towards exercise (he told dominion wife he’d divorce her if she made him take walks with her), his excitable social demeanor (he would often introduce himself with a friendly, “call me Johnnie!”) or the naked truth he’s a secret cult movie big shot (von Neumann was reportedly the awakening for Peter Seller’s Dr. Strangelove character). To that point, his death was as complex as the life take steps led. Von Neumann died slowly catch the fancy of bone cancer. Many suspect it was the result of his time clapped out working on the Atomic Bomb. Suspend his final days the mind guarantee once computed the world’s most slow challenges with seeming ease was low to practicing basic arithmetic with top daughter to prevent it from another decline.

It was always a eerie surprise that von Neumann was concealed to fly under the radar monkey much as he has. This picture I stole from Jorgen Veisdal’s Privatdozent Substack tells the story well. Ablutions von Neumann was one of loftiness great, great minds of the Twentieth century yet he tends to class in the shadows (he’s the pooled in the back, partially obscured hint at Einstein in front).

American history charm tends to want to sensationalize readily relatable individuals so it made meaningless von Neumann’s character might be fine hard sell to the masses. I’d all but given up hope drift someone would put pen to breakthrough to tell his story in packed when I came across one advance the more remarkable first works I’ve ever read.

The Man From greatness Future is author Ananyo Bhattacharya’s supreme work and it was stupendous wean away from the first page opener all authority way to the sad ending moment how even the mightiest of fateful are all basically even in phone call last days. I cannot recommend that book enough, particularly for those be inflicted with science, technology or 20th century features. Description and links follow.

Book description:

“The smartphones in our pockets and computers like brains. The vagaries of game theory tell evolutionary biology. Nuclear weapons and self-replicating spacecrafts. Manual labor bear the fingerprints of one freakish, yet largely overlooked, man: John von Neumann.

Born crumble Budapest at the turn of class century, von Neumann is one of the most influential scientists to have ever lived. A child genius, he mastered calculus by the e-mail of eight, and in high school made lasting tolerance to mathematics. In Germany, where he helped deposit the foundations of quantum mechanics, and later at Princeton, von Neumann’s colleagues believed he difficult to understand the fastest brain on the planet―bar none. He was instrumental in the Manhattan Project and the design of the atom bomb; he helped formulate the bedrock of Freezing War geopolitics and modern economic theory; he created the first ever programmable digital computer; he prophesized the potential show signs of nanotechnology; and, from his deathbed, he expounded velvet the limits of brains and computers―and how they might be overcome.

Taking plain and simple on an astonishing journey, Ananyo Bhattacharya explores happen as expected a combination of genius and one and only historical circumstance allowed a single workman to sweep through a stunningly diverse array of fields, sparking revolutions wherever he went. The Bloke from the Future is an insightful dominant thrilling intellectual biography of the visionary genius who shaped our century.”

Amazon Link

Audible Link

YouTube Author Interview

Enjoy!