Libraries can be labyrinthine mazes where one stumbles onto rare gems. I stumbled onto one such gem in the form of a biography while looking for another book at the IISc library.
John von Neumann is one of the legends of the modern computer. He was referred several times during multiple lectures in my post-graduate degree courses. So I immediately issued the book curious to know more about this genius. Turns out he has made several fundamental contributions to many fields. While computing was an area I was aware of, fields such quantum mechanics (one of my favourite subjects from my undergraduate Physics course), economics and ballistics were few of the other other areas (that I did not know) apart from pure mathematics that Johnny left an indelible mark.
A number of other big names in science including Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg,Weiner, Oppenheimer are some of the characters that Johnny worked along in different capacities. Some other unknown (to me) names such as Theodore von Karman ( "accused of inventing consultancy") provided some additional bits of knowledge. Added another reason to respect the Hungarians. The author did an amazing job of setting the historical context of the time of Johnny's birth, early years and his time in America. Norman Macrae, the author of this book, has also co-authored a comprehensive book on the World War 2 - the research for the book would have helped for sure.
His early childhood and how his parents, especially his father, nurtured the environment is a great lesson. Even if your children are not genius, having such a rich ambience around you in terms of private tutors and illustrious visitors to his house provided a great start. More so for genius children perhaps as the author compares some of the other big names (Bertrand Russell for example) who childhood were less than happy. Of course it helped that his father was a wealthy banker.
Some quotes, points from the book that I found interesting.
" he sometimes added his hopes for the introduction of mathematical rigour (i.e. proper science) into the worthy but twittering faculties of economics and their even weaker sisters in today's social half-sciences"
"most important contributions - theory of self-adjoint operators in Hilbert space and on the mathematical foundations of quantum theory and the ergodic theorem."
"28% - portion fo all the mathematics that a person might aspire to understand today."
"What is the use of learning Latin ? It could give you a sufficiently tidy mind to grow up and invent something logical like the modern computer."
"Ex ungue leonem - spotting a lion from its claws. Bernoulli said about Newton. Same used by Prof. Herbert Fraenkel for Johnny"
"Reasons for Johnny's effectiveness - his father Max's upbringing that allowed him to think relaxedly. sense of calmness and humour. Learning to laugh. Inquiring mind that finds inquiry fun."
Reading history, learning tough languages such as Latin, Greek. axiomatic thinking are some of the key aspects that I felt made Johnny formidable.
"Three stages of a mathematical idea. Practical/empirical -> Aesthetic -> Absurd (straying away from the source)"
"... since happiness is an eminently empirical proposition, the only thing I can do is to wait and see."
"In planning anything new ... it is customary and very proper to consider what the demand is, what the price is, whether it will be more profitable to do it in a bold way or a cautious way and so on.
This type of consideration is certainly necessary. Things would very quickly go to pieces if these rules were not observed in 99 cases out of 100. It is very important, however, that there should be one case in 100 where it is done differently ... to do sometimes what the United States Navy did in this case, and what IBM did in this case : to write specifications simply calling for the most advanced machine which is possible in the present state of the art.
I hope this will done again soon and that it will never be forgotten."
"Four groups of decisions - Generate enthusiasm, funding and find a place to operate from, devise and explain changes to logical design, build a working prototype and think about future applications."
The last two notes are worthwhile aspects for the current race to build a quantum computer. Johnny would have been best person, having laid the foundations to both quantum theory and computing, to lead the current work on quantum computing. Maybe there is a new age Johnny who is already busy at work though the breadth and depth of science and technical understanding required for such an endeavour is mind boggling.
Had a feeling of being late to the Johnny party. Better late than never though.
Really glad to have read this beautiful book.
John von Neumann is one of the legends of the modern computer. He was referred several times during multiple lectures in my post-graduate degree courses. So I immediately issued the book curious to know more about this genius. Turns out he has made several fundamental contributions to many fields. While computing was an area I was aware of, fields such quantum mechanics (one of my favourite subjects from my undergraduate Physics course), economics and ballistics were few of the other other areas (that I did not know) apart from pure mathematics that Johnny left an indelible mark.
A number of other big names in science including Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg,Weiner, Oppenheimer are some of the characters that Johnny worked along in different capacities. Some other unknown (to me) names such as Theodore von Karman ( "accused of inventing consultancy") provided some additional bits of knowledge. Added another reason to respect the Hungarians. The author did an amazing job of setting the historical context of the time of Johnny's birth, early years and his time in America. Norman Macrae, the author of this book, has also co-authored a comprehensive book on the World War 2 - the research for the book would have helped for sure.
His early childhood and how his parents, especially his father, nurtured the environment is a great lesson. Even if your children are not genius, having such a rich ambience around you in terms of private tutors and illustrious visitors to his house provided a great start. More so for genius children perhaps as the author compares some of the other big names (Bertrand Russell for example) who childhood were less than happy. Of course it helped that his father was a wealthy banker.
Some quotes, points from the book that I found interesting.
" he sometimes added his hopes for the introduction of mathematical rigour (i.e. proper science) into the worthy but twittering faculties of economics and their even weaker sisters in today's social half-sciences"
"most important contributions - theory of self-adjoint operators in Hilbert space and on the mathematical foundations of quantum theory and the ergodic theorem."
"28% - portion fo all the mathematics that a person might aspire to understand today."
"What is the use of learning Latin ? It could give you a sufficiently tidy mind to grow up and invent something logical like the modern computer."
"Ex ungue leonem - spotting a lion from its claws. Bernoulli said about Newton. Same used by Prof. Herbert Fraenkel for Johnny"
"Reasons for Johnny's effectiveness - his father Max's upbringing that allowed him to think relaxedly. sense of calmness and humour. Learning to laugh. Inquiring mind that finds inquiry fun."
Reading history, learning tough languages such as Latin, Greek. axiomatic thinking are some of the key aspects that I felt made Johnny formidable.
"Three stages of a mathematical idea. Practical/empirical -> Aesthetic -> Absurd (straying away from the source)"
"... since happiness is an eminently empirical proposition, the only thing I can do is to wait and see."
"In planning anything new ... it is customary and very proper to consider what the demand is, what the price is, whether it will be more profitable to do it in a bold way or a cautious way and so on.
This type of consideration is certainly necessary. Things would very quickly go to pieces if these rules were not observed in 99 cases out of 100. It is very important, however, that there should be one case in 100 where it is done differently ... to do sometimes what the United States Navy did in this case, and what IBM did in this case : to write specifications simply calling for the most advanced machine which is possible in the present state of the art.
I hope this will done again soon and that it will never be forgotten."
"Four groups of decisions - Generate enthusiasm, funding and find a place to operate from, devise and explain changes to logical design, build a working prototype and think about future applications."
The last two notes are worthwhile aspects for the current race to build a quantum computer. Johnny would have been best person, having laid the foundations to both quantum theory and computing, to lead the current work on quantum computing. Maybe there is a new age Johnny who is already busy at work though the breadth and depth of science and technical understanding required for such an endeavour is mind boggling.
Had a feeling of being late to the Johnny party. Better late than never though.
Really glad to have read this beautiful book.
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