
The Man from the Future
The Visionary Life of John von Neumann
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for £12.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Nicholas Camm
About this listen
Brought to you by Penguin.
An exhilarating new biography of John von Neumann: the lost genius who invented our world.
The smartphones in our pockets and computers like brains. The vagaries of game theory and evolutionary biology. Self-replicating moon bases and nuclear weapons. All bear the fingerprints of one remarkable 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. His colleagues believed he had the fastest brain on the planet - bar none. He was instrumental in the Manhattan Project and helped formulate the bedrock of Cold War geopolitics and modern economic theory. He created the first ever programmable digital computer. He prophesied the potential of nanotechnology and, from his deathbed, 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 so many different fields of science, sparking revolutions wherever he went.
Insightful and illuminating, The Man from the Future is a thrilling intellectual biography of the visionary thinker who shaped our century.
©2021 Ananyo Bhattacharya (P)2021 Penguin AudioCritic reviews
"A sparkling book, with an intoxicating mix of pen-portraits and grand historical narrative. Above all it fizzes with a dizzying mix of deliciously vital ideas.... A staggering achievement." (Tim Harford)
A standout biography of a remarkable man!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
nice history of mathematics and computing
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Wow. 'Larry David meets Einstein and Godel'
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great biography of JVN
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Not really a biography
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Blown away by genius
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
As an introduction to Von Neumann’s work, the book is very good! I would have liked more detail about the IAS machine that Von Neumann built – it was a very interesting computer with a unique architecture, but the author doesn’t go into any detail about it. But the explanations of Von Neumann’s work in quantum theory, nuclear physics, game theory and cellular automata are all nicely explained.
It must be said that the book is very disgressive, and the author lets his interests show quite palpably. I would have preferred the sections about Von Neumann’s influence to be curtailed, and instead to have more of a biographical narrative about the man.
One point where I do disagree with the author is about intelligence. The notion that there is such a person as “the most intelligent man alive” is dangerous post-Romantic rubbish. Luckily this rhetoric of genius drops off after the first couple of Chapters. Ironically, one thing the biography does extremely well is to show just how collaborative science is, and how little even a great scientist like Von Neumann actually contributes of their own accord.
Very interesting, but infocused
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
more the ideas than the person behind them
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Worst narrator ever!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Not a biography of an incredible man
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.