The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann (2019) • Hacker News Board

Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann (2019)

#101

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 4:18 AM UTC

jshier wrote: post #72

Rochus wrote: post #13

> von Neumann proposed a description for a computer architecture now known as the von Neumann architecture Well, he actually described an already existing design by Eckert and Mauchly under his name and this paper was illegally disclosed. For the ones interested in this and other fascinating stories about ENIAC, here is a good book: https://www.amazon.com/Eniac-Triumphs-Tragedies-Worlds-Compu... ; worth reading is al…

This isn't really true. There was no existing architecture and even if there was, Eckert and Mauchly weren't the only ones involved. ENIAC itself encapsulated almost none of the Von Neumann architecture principles. While it's true Von Neumann's paper started as a summary of ongoing discussions on computer architecture for the EDVAC with a group that included Eckert, Mauchly, Arthur Burks, and others, Von Neumann's pr…

[deleted]

Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann (2019)

#102

Post by peter303 » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 4:20 AM UTC

aeontech wrote: post #6

And he was only -51-, correction, 53 when he passed… One has to wonder what more he would have accomplished had he lived another 30 years or more. As an aside, are there many pure research institutes left? It seems like academic life is now mostly spent chasing grants and managing teaching load, and very very few people get to do pure research.

MicroSoft Research,mGoogle Labs. Unclear if they have developed anything significant.

Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann (2019)

#103

Post by justicezyx » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 4:21 AM UTC

SquishyPanda23 wrote: post #96

justicezyx wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now the water is really muddy... Is there a defitive book or wiki page for the whole thing regarding: * Von Neumann's actual contribution to the so-called von Neumann architecture

Here is the wiki page on the report and the controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Draft_of_a_Report_on_the...

“““ The treatment of the preliminary report as a publication (in the legal sense) was the source of bitter acrimony between factions of the EDVAC design team for two reasons.[3] First, publication amounted to a public disclosure that prevented the EDVAC from being patented; second, some on the EDVAC design team contended that the stored-program concept had evolved out of meetings at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical Engineering predating von Neumann's activity as a consultant there, and that much of the work represented in the First Draft was no more than a translation of the discussed concepts into the language of formal logic in which von Neumann was fluent. Hence, failure of von Neumann and Goldstine to list others as authors on the First Draft led credit to be attributed to von Neumann alone. (See Matthew effect and Stigler's law.) ”””

This seems more vague than what have been disclosed here...

Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann (2019)

#104

Post by echelon » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 4:28 AM UTC

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #89

Rochus wrote: post #13

> von Neumann proposed a description for a computer architecture now known as the von Neumann architecture Well, he actually described an already existing design by Eckert and Mauchly under his name and this paper was illegally disclosed. For the ones interested in this and other fascinating stories about ENIAC, here is a good book: https://www.amazon.com/Eniac-Triumphs-Tragedies-Worlds-Compu... ; worth reading is al…

What a crime that such 22 year old memories are locked away in an amazon comment, to be lost whenever amazon deems it necessary to cull comments older than a certain age.

The whole internet is like this. Everything is atrophying.

Remember personal websites and blogs? Barely anybody runs them anymore.

Archive Team is doing amazing work, and we need to support them.

Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann (2019)

#105

Post by suifbwish » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 4:31 AM UTC

jshier wrote: post #72

Rochus wrote: post #13

> von Neumann proposed a description for a computer architecture now known as the von Neumann architecture Well, he actually described an already existing design by Eckert and Mauchly under his name and this paper was illegally disclosed. For the ones interested in this and other fascinating stories about ENIAC, here is a good book: https://www.amazon.com/Eniac-Triumphs-Tragedies-Worlds-Compu... ; worth reading is al…

This isn't really true. There was no existing architecture and even if there was, Eckert and Mauchly weren't the only ones involved. ENIAC itself encapsulated almost none of the Von Neumann architecture principles. While it's true Von Neumann's paper started as a summary of ongoing discussions on computer architecture for the EDVAC with a group that included Eckert, Mauchly, Arthur Burks, and others, Von Neumann's pr…

Fascinating when individuals of such advanced intelligence are not obsessed with immortality. Either They believe it is not possible or they are secretly a god trying to escape the boredom of already having long since achieved it.

Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann (2019)

#106

Post by astrange » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 4:38 AM UTC

peter303 wrote: post #100

adverbly wrote: post #56

Is it just me or does it seem like there something like there were a lot of celebrity-level STEM heroes to come out of the early 20th century. These folks all seemed to work together closely. Maybe these things take time, but it just doesn't seem like there is anything remotely like this going on today, despite far greater access to education and increases in global population. Is it perhaps that the limelight is les…

Two words: SILICON VALLEY. Plus a lot of incest with Stanford grad students and young Stanford professors.

All of these Hungarian STEM heroes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martians_(scientists)) were pre-Silicon Valley people. It was still Valley of Heart's Delight back then.

Not sure who their successors were. I guess there's Knuth.

Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann (2019)

#107

Post by nsm » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 4:38 AM UTC

This post actually suggests cloning John von Neumann as one of the options if we ever have adversarial AGI :) https://fantasticanachronism.com/2021/03/23/two-paths-to-the...

Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann (2019)

#108

Post by astrange » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 4:43 AM UTC

smnplk wrote: post #18

ZephyrBlu wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do we actually have no idea what the biological/genetic differences between geniuses and average people are? That's interesting. > I'd like to take the idyllic position of (somewhat irresponsibly) hoping that some level of genius can be fostered and created in anyone from a young age So you believe that genius is environmental and not genetic? Or maybe we are thinking about different definitions of genius.

I believe the foundations have to be genetic. There are multitude of factors involved and one of them is having a strong memory. But there also needs to be a drive and thirst for knowledge.

The difference between humans and other apes is genetic, but anything more than that is not. Humans have nearly no genetic diversity because of population bottlenecks, there are barely any interesting differences between us.

It's also not that useful to think about. Phenylketonuria is a condition that makes you less intelligent if you drink Diet Coke, and most people don't have the gene for it. But not having phenylketonuria isn't a "gene for intelligence", it's just not having a disease.

Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann (2019)

#109

Post by astrange » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 4:44 AM UTC

Koshkin wrote: post #70

ZephyrBlu wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure this is a viable argument considering that we also share much of our DNA with apes/monkeys. It seems like minor genetic differences can create large disparities. I definitely think environmental factors can compound on a genetic baseline though, and of course the earlier you start compounding the greater the returns.

Indeed, some cognitive disabilities are based in genetics; but those are usually quite obvious. The rest of us humans are pretty much the same. Young child’s brain is, by nature, like a sponge, and impressions received at an early age are extremely critical.

Childrens' growth and development is also seriously affected by things that happened before they were born, like their mother's diet and exposure to local pollutants, that causes effects that could be mistaken for genetic differences. This is why twin studies and such things don't actually prove anything.

Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann (2019)

#110

Post by hntrader » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 4:48 AM UTC

stephc_int13 wrote: post #20

ZephyrBlu wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do we actually have no idea what the biological/genetic differences between geniuses and average people are? That's interesting. > I'd like to take the idyllic position of (somewhat irresponsibly) hoping that some level of genius can be fostered and created in anyone from a young age So you believe that genius is environmental and not genetic? Or maybe we are thinking about different definitions of genius.

From a genetic standpoint, all humans are 99.9% identical beasts. There is of course some genetic components in potential abilities. But I strongly believe that most of the differences we are seeing are built on compounded interest of environmental factors, starting from a very young age.

You strongly believe this based on what?

Being "99.9 percent identical" doesn't necessarily preclude substantial genetic variation in intelligence just like it doesn't preclude such variation in height or skin tone.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritability_of_IQ