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The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann

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Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann

#301

Post by SamReidHughes »

pfdietz wrote: post #291
mixmastamyk wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, only a “small” significant increase to those nearby. And we’re not talking only about fallout but manipulation in the lab. It’s specifically your brand of risk downplaying that led to all these early deaths. Things are much safer today because educated folks understand the risks and prepare for them.

What makes you think von Neumann got any exposure in labs? He was a mathematician, not any sort of experimentalist. The idea that his cancer came from fallout is just moralizing nonsense, the silly logical error of thinking that the universe operates in a way that punishes badness.

He was actually at Los Alamos, he was trained as a chemical engineer; it’s hard to imagine he didn’t get invited to see the demon core and other fun stuff, or otherwise breathe in some particles.

Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann

#302

Post by liveoneggs »

codingslave wrote: post #188
mirekrusin wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He mentions Curie as non-Ashkenazi, but even with her I don't know, she was born Polish with full name "Maria Salomea Skłodowska"(-Curie), her middle name "Salomea", given after her grandmother sounds to me like Jewish origin. I wonder how percentage of Nobel price winners/etc. would look like if you'd really dig deeper few generations or did genetic tests.

I have a hypothesis that almost all of the greatest intellectual achievements come from a very small number of bloodlines. I really doubt the idea that people are born and some just end up as the smartest in generations, I think theres more to the story

this looks about up your alley: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrenology

Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann

#303

Post by Jeff_Brown »

hgytr wrote: post #279
spookthesunset wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you're intellectually gifted (many programmers are) Lets not jerk each other off too hard, eh? Just like everybody in life, in any trade or profession, most programmers are just average people like everybody else. They just happened to luck out and be good at a talent that pays well. Odds are incredibly high you aren't any smarter than somebody who paints houses for a living, fills your prescription, or plays fo…

There is a reason why a cashier works for minimum wage. A few days ago I went to a grocery store to buy sparkling water. I got 16 small bottles and arranged them as a 4 by 4 grid before cashier, so she wouldn't need to spend time counting them and delaying the line. It took her over 10 seconds to count the bottles: apparently, she didn't recognize the pattern and counted them by groups of 3-4 bottles covering the cou…

> Imagine a 3x3 grid and draw there words oil/gas/dry. Now read all the words that you see on the grid.

I can't do this for shit and I'm a genius.

Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann

#304

Post by vlasev »

rmp33 wrote: post #174

A question to mathematicians: what does your mind look like when you prove a theorem? There is a comment here, saying that many hard theorems require one to build a complex branch of math and use it to prove a single statement. So I asked myself: what does it really look like to prove a theorem at such level? I can tell what's going on in a programmer's mind. Software is very much like an imaginary mechanism and soft…

In my graduate math research I had to find patterns, formalize them and eventually prove more and more little results that added up to bigger results. I went through a lot of iterations, calculations and "experiments". The thing that guided me the most was that I had a feeling that things could be simplified, streamlined and generalized. It was a feeling that didn't go away until I found what I felt like I needed to find.

I find myself in a similar situation with development. There's an unescapable feeling that things could be created or improved. The feeling doesn't go away until I've done the work.

So I think what you're talking about is more so dependent on the person's mind rather than what they're doing. Like Conway's law, I think usually systems grow to mimic the developers' way of thinking, whether those are mathematical systems or software systems.

Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann

#305

Post by mixmastamyk »

pfdietz wrote: post #291
mixmastamyk wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, only a “small” significant increase to those nearby. And we’re not talking only about fallout but manipulation in the lab. It’s specifically your brand of risk downplaying that led to all these early deaths. Things are much safer today because educated folks understand the risks and prepare for them.

What makes you think von Neumann got any exposure in labs? He was a mathematician, not any sort of experimentalist. The idea that his cancer came from fallout is just moralizing nonsense, the silly logical error of thinking that the universe operates in a way that punishes badness.

Arrogant much? In a single reply with multiple errors. VN is a hero.

Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann

#306

Post by mixmastamyk »

SamReidHughes wrote: post #301
pfdietz wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you think von Neumann got any exposure in labs? He was a mathematician, not any sort of experimentalist. The idea that his cancer came from fallout is just moralizing nonsense, the silly logical error of thinking that the universe operates in a way that punishes badness.

He was actually at Los Alamos, he was trained as a chemical engineer; it’s hard to imagine he didn’t get invited to see the demon core and other fun stuff, or otherwise breathe in some particles.

Yes, especially at a time when they were quite nonchalant about safety.

Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann

#307

Post by mixmastamyk »

williamDafoe wrote: post #290
pfdietz wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not a valid inference. Even during the era of nuclear testing, the great majority of cancers were not caused by radiation. Now, SMOKING...

Smokers lungs experience something like 1000x more radiation than a visit near Chernobyl. My dad was a student of von Neumann. In the 50's it was fashionable to smoke, drink martinis, and drink lots of coffee, and exercise was for chumps. My dad didn't live even as long as von Neumann, and died of a heart attack.

VN didn’t smoke and your first sentence is obviously exaggerated.

Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann

#308

Post by pfdietz »

SamReidHughes wrote: post #301
pfdietz wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you think von Neumann got any exposure in labs? He was a mathematician, not any sort of experimentalist. The idea that his cancer came from fallout is just moralizing nonsense, the silly logical error of thinking that the universe operates in a way that punishes badness.

He was actually at Los Alamos, he was trained as a chemical engineer; it’s hard to imagine he didn’t get invited to see the demon core and other fun stuff, or otherwise breathe in some particles.

So, you think being in the room with the "demon core" was dangerous even when it wasn't being used? The radiation from it in a non-critical state would have been very small. If he had been there during a criticality accident it would have been recorded.

I think you're just waving your hands here because you have no evidence to support the claim.

Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann

#309

Post by SamReidHughes »

pfdietz wrote: post #308
SamReidHughes wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He was actually at Los Alamos, he was trained as a chemical engineer; it’s hard to imagine he didn’t get invited to see the demon core and other fun stuff, or otherwise breathe in some particles.

So, you think being in the room with the "demon core" was dangerous even when it wasn't being used? The radiation from it in a non-critical state would have been very small. If he had been there during a criticality accident it would have been recorded. I think you're just waving your hands here because you have no evidence to support the claim.

Um, yeah, I stated all the evidence at hand. If you’re looking for a strong convincing case, I ain’t giving one.

And the likely cause wouldn’t be some gamma rays, it’d be from ingesting radioactive or chemically harmful matter.

Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann

#310

Post by pfdietz »

SamReidHughes wrote: post #309
pfdietz wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, you think being in the room with the "demon core" was dangerous even when it wasn't being used? The radiation from it in a non-critical state would have been very small. If he had been there during a criticality accident it would have been recorded. I think you're just waving your hands here because you have no evidence to support the claim.

Um, yeah, I stated all the evidence at hand. If you’re looking for a strong convincing case, I ain’t giving one. And the likely cause wouldn’t be some gamma rays, it’d be from ingesting radioactive or chemically harmful matter.

So, your theory is he licked that plutonium sphere when he was in there?

Sounds legit!

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