Benjamín Labutut’s The MANIAC — an experimental novel about von Neumann told in bite-sized historical vignettes. So excited to get this book, coming in tomorro

Benjamín Labutut’s The MANIAC — an experimental novel about von Neumann told in bite-sized historical vignettes. So excited to get this book, coming in tomorrow! Fun to see it randomly mentioned. This was when he had three or four drinks. He spoke of computers with some awe. And the real distinction is the people who feel awe for computers. They’re nuts. Heh always good to see philosophy crossing over into other fields. This is quintessential analytic / “purely scientific” arrogance, and I love it. Thank god these days the AI researchers have some among them who have a healthy respect for the unknown and the unknowable, like Ilya. But I always chuckle seeing engineers with such an attitude, like everyone else is just too dumb to get it. Fantastic article, learned a lot, thanks for posting! I would give credit for “first to posit the simulation hypothesis” to Plato or Descartes, but I’ll leave that for another thread lol. As it stands, this is pretty compelling research to edit the official wiki page IMO…