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I found this interesting, thank you. I am familiar with Von Neumann's reputation as a genius but haven't read much about his life. A few biographies of him are

I found this interesting, thank you. I am familiar with Von Neumann's reputation as a genius but haven't read much about his life. A few biographies of him are on my to-read list. Do you know which ones have more detail on this portion of his life and his thoughts on time? From studying other historical figures, this phenomenon of "dying before the Great Work is done" seems to be a common theme. Alexander, Caesar, and Nietzsche come to mind. I'm not sure what to make of it. On the one hand, most such figures still end up being influential, so if your goal is to be remembered by others, you mostly just need to do something important, at some point in your life. On the other hand, if you feel that the most important part of your work is continually being pushed to "some point in the future", then it would be fruitful to take a step back and figure out how to minimize the "not really important work" (running government agencies in Von Neumann's case.) On a society-wide scale, I think there are quite a few adjustments that I wish would be implemented to minimize this "wasted administrative time." Things like waiting in traffic and cities oriented toward cars, software that is designed to be addictive, and so on.

mjreacher 4y ago
Yes definitely, but I feel that the mindset is to make a lasting contributions, something significant enough that it would remain important even one hundred years into the future. For example von Neumann had incredible respect for Kurt Gödel and said his incompleteness theorems were a "landmark in space and time", he wanted to make discoveries on that tier, and I am not sure he felt he did. Of course the way technology and computers panned out he ended up being more famous than basically any other mathematician for his role there, but obviously he couldn't have known that at the time. I would also add getting rid of bullshit jobs to the adjustments that you have listed as examples. Most biographies of him strangely enough don't really go into too much detail on his work at the AEC, perhaps because there's already so much to talk about but also perhaps because a lot of this stuff was classified. It doesn't help either that the earliest biographies were only written more than 20 years after he died, and back in his lifetime in the first half of the 20th century not as much was written down as these days. I am assuming you are talking about his life in the 1940s and 1950s when you say "this portion of his life" so I'll give recommendations based off that. All the main biographies generally cover it but I'll give a few notes to help you make a decision. Not in any particular order. - The Martian's Daughter: A Memoir His daughter's autobiography, first part of the book talks about their relationship and given she was born in 1935 most of it covers the last parts of his life. - John von Neumann and Norbert Wiener: From Mathematics to the Technologies of Life and Death This is the first biography by Heims; goes more into detail about their war work but I would point out though that Heims pretty clearly aims to denigrate von Neumann as a war hawk, none of the quotes are false or anything like that but when the book first came out several of von Neumann's colleagues criticized the book for trying to character assassinate him. - The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann Goldstine talks about the history of the computer but about two-thirds of the book covers work von Neumann and him both did together and there is plenty of biographical material on von Neumann. Obviously more focused on computers though. - John von Neumann and the Origins of Modern Computing Unlike Goldstine's book this is a biography von Neumann, however unlike Goldstine Aspray didn't know von Neumann as a close collaborator. Like Goldstine's it also focuses more on computing, not as much Goldstine however a lot of von Neumann's automata work is tied up with computers so it's a good read regardless. - Prisoner's Dilemma: John Von Neumann, Game Theory, and the Puzzle of the Bomb This book focuses more on game theory with less biographical material on von Neumann, however it does have a dedicated chapter to his last years and what he was doing then. - John von Neumann: The Scientific Genius Who Pioneered the Modern Computer, Game Theory, Nuclear Deterrence, and Much More This is probably the biggest biography, it is very even describing each stage of von Neumann's life. It is a bit more of a hero worship compared the other books which you'll notice if read the reviews of the book. Less technical compared to the others too. - The World as a Mathematical Game: John Von Neumann and Twentieth Century Science This one tries to evaluate von Neumann's contributions to 20th century science overall, as it was written in 2009 it does source to the previous books quite a bit. Shorter compared to the others. - The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann This one was only released this year, it's a biography but it kind of tries to describe the world around von Neumann at his time and how he fits into it. Obviously by now almost everyone who knew him personally aside from his daughter and a handful of others are dead so it focuses more on his technical contributions rather than anecdotes on his influence. - Turing's Cathedral: the Origins of the Digital Universe This one is also more focused on computing, has some things that aren't written in the others as Dyson did a particularly good job going through some of the archives, but not as much focused on von Neumann compared to the others. - A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon Isn't a biography of von Neumann but of Schriever, who worked with von Neumann to setup the first ICBM programs in the USA. Obviously the main focus here is on the military and political side of von Neumann's work in the 1940s and 50s, and not much else in terms of his life. However contains lots of information on this particular part of his life that other books lack. If you look at the "Further Reading" section of his Wikipedia page there is a long list of books that feature him heavily in case you want more. Happy reading!
- keiferski 4y ago
  This is really helpful, thank you! By "this portion of his life" I meant his realization that he wouldn't be able to accomplish all of his goals. It looks like some of the books you mentioned do cover that.

mjreacher 4y ago

Yes definitely, but I feel that the mindset is to make a lasting contributions, something significant enough that it would remain important even one hundred years into the future. For example von Neumann had incredible respect for Kurt Gödel and said his incompleteness theorems were a "landmark in space and time", he wanted to make discoveries on that tier, and I am not sure he felt he did. Of course the way technology and computers panned out he ended up being more famous than basically any other mathematician for his role there, but obviously he couldn't have known that at the time. I would also add getting rid of bullshit jobs to the adjustments that you have listed as examples. Most biographies of him strangely enough don't really go into too much detail on his work at the AEC, perhaps because there's already so much to talk about but also perhaps because a lot of this stuff was classified. It doesn't help either that the earliest biographies were only written more than 20 years after he died, and back in his lifetime in the first half of the 20th century not as much was written down as these days. I am assuming you are talking about his life in the 1940s and 1950s when you say "this portion of his life" so I'll give recommendations based off that. All the main biographies generally cover it but I'll give a few notes to help you make a decision. Not in any particular order. - The Martian's Daughter: A Memoir His daughter's autobiography, first part of the book talks about their relationship and given she was born in 1935 most of it covers the last parts of his life. - John von Neumann and Norbert Wiener: From Mathematics to the Technologies of Life and Death This is the first biography by Heims; goes more into detail about their war work but I would point out though that Heims pretty clearly aims to denigrate von Neumann as a war hawk, none of the quotes are false or anything like that but when the book first came out several of von Neumann's colleagues criticized the book for trying to character assassinate him. - The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann Goldstine talks about the history of the computer but about two-thirds of the book covers work von Neumann and him both did together and there is plenty of biographical material on von Neumann. Obviously more focused on computers though. - John von Neumann and the Origins of Modern Computing Unlike Goldstine's book this is a biography von Neumann, however unlike Goldstine Aspray didn't know von Neumann as a close collaborator. Like Goldstine's it also focuses more on computing, not as much Goldstine however a lot of von Neumann's automata work is tied up with computers so it's a good read regardless. - Prisoner's Dilemma: John Von Neumann, Game Theory, and the Puzzle of the Bomb This book focuses more on game theory with less biographical material on von Neumann, however it does have a dedicated chapter to his last years and what he was doing then. - John von Neumann: The Scientific Genius Who Pioneered the Modern Computer, Game Theory, Nuclear Deterrence, and Much More This is probably the biggest biography, it is very even describing each stage of von Neumann's life. It is a bit more of a hero worship compared the other books which you'll notice if read the reviews of the book. Less technical compared to the others too. - The World as a Mathematical Game: John Von Neumann and Twentieth Century Science This one tries to evaluate von Neumann's contributions to 20th century science overall, as it was written in 2009 it does source to the previous books quite a bit. Shorter compared to the others. - The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann This one was only released this year, it's a biography but it kind of tries to describe the world around von Neumann at his time and how he fits into it. Obviously by now almost everyone who knew him personally aside from his daughter and a handful of others are dead so it focuses more on his technical contributions rather than anecdotes on his influence. - Turing's Cathedral: the Origins of the Digital Universe This one is also more focused on computing, has some things that aren't written in the others as Dyson did a particularly good job going through some of the archives, but not as much focused on von Neumann compared to the others. - A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon Isn't a biography of von Neumann but of Schriever, who worked with von Neumann to setup the first ICBM programs in the USA. Obviously the main focus here is on the military and political side of von Neumann's work in the 1940s and 50s, and not much else in terms of his life. However contains lots of information on this particular part of his life that other books lack. If you look at the "Further Reading" section of his Wikipedia page there is a long list of books that feature him heavily in case you want more. Happy reading!

keiferski 4y ago
This is really helpful, thank you! By "this portion of his life" I meant his realization that he wouldn't be able to accomplish all of his goals. It looks like some of the books you mentioned do cover that.