The Man from the Future: The Visionary Ideas of John von Neumann
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4.0 • 28 Ratings
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
A Scientific American 2023 Staff Recommendation
An electrifying biography of one of the most extraordinary scientists of the twentieth century and the world he made.
The smartphones in our pockets and computers like brains. The vagaries of game theory and evolutionary biology. Nuclear weapons and self-replicating spacecrafts. All bear the fingerprints of one remarkable, yet largely overlooked, man: John von Neumann.
Born in Budapest at the turn of the century, von Neumann is one of the most influential scientists to have ever lived. A child prodigy, he mastered calculus by the age of eight, and in high school made lasting contributions to mathematics. In Germany, where he helped lay the foundations of quantum mechanics, and later at Princeton, von Neumann’s colleagues believed he had 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 Cold War geopolitics and modern economic theory; he created the first ever programmable digital computer; he prophesized the potential of nanotechnology; and, from his deathbed, he expounded on the limits of brains and computers—and how they might be overcome.
Taking us on an astonishing journey, Ananyo Bhattacharya explores how a combination of genius and unique historical circumstance allowed a single man to sweep through a stunningly diverse array of fields, sparking revolutions wherever he went. The Man from the Future is an insightful and thrilling intellectual biography of the visionary thinker who shaped our century.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
John von Neumann (1903–1957) was one of the most important scientists of the 20th century and "probably the smartest man on Earth," contends journalist Bhattacharya in his knotty debut. Born in Budapest, von Neumann was a child prodigy who excelled at math and transformed the field: he was largely responsible for the architecture of modern computers, helped shape the present understanding of quantum mechanics, made important contributions to the Manhattan Project, was one of the founders of game theory, was responsible for the idea behind self-replicating machines, and was "name checked" in works by Philip K. Dick and Kurt Vonnegut. Bhattacharya's admiration for his subject is clear: "His thinking is so pertinent to the challenges we face today that it is tempting to wonder if he was a time traveler, quietly seeding ideas that he knew would be needed to shape the Earth's future." But von Neumann ends up something of a bit player in his own story—instead of focusing on what made him tick, Bhattacharya spends most of his time on von Neumann's ideas and discoveries and those who developed them further, and explanations of the underlying science remain fairly complex. Those with a strong grounding in the material will be entranced, though it's likely too daunting for more casual readers.
