The Man From the Future Is a Biography and Not a Biography

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

"I felt quite intellectually burn out after writing it so I am they might brain back in order by writing a kid science fiction novel at the moment" "My money-making schemes are not as good as von Neumann's. It's like rightly a book about an obscure 20th century mathematical genius and then write a science fiction novel neither of which is generally a short five money spinning schemes" He says he likes this notion of unpicking science we tend to imagine the great geniuses of the past as sitting around and then suddenly bush an idea sort of pops into their head out of the etho maybe just God gave it to them.

Ananyo Bhattacharya is the author of The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann, a brilliant biography of one of the most prolific and influential scientists to have ever lived. He joins the show to discuss von Neumann’s contributions to quantum physics, game theory, the Manhattan Project, and much more! Important Links:

Show Notes:

How did John von Neumann even exist?
Would von Neumann’s discoveries have happened without him?
The Martians of Hungary
The migrant mentality
Innovation in the face of extinction
Science, genius & the herd mentality
Von Neumann’s contribution to quantum physics
Game theory, Minimax and zero-sum games
von Neumann: quant in the streets; romantic in the sheets
The eccentricity of brilliance
Von Neumann and the Manhattan Project
The godfather of the open-source movement
Von Neumann as a project manager
How writing the book changed Ananyo’s understanding of von Neumann
Ananyo’s next projects
MUCH more!

Books Mentioned:

The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann; **by **Ananyo Bhattacharya
The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World; by David Deutsch
The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism; by Howard Bloom
Theory of Games and Economic Behaviour; by John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern