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The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann (2019)

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

#151

Post by vecinu »

geenew wrote: post #22
deviation wrote: post #8

It staggers me that in an age of incredible innovation and technology- we still have no idea what biologically separates a man like this from the rest of us. 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.. But when I read articles like this I feel the compulsive need to sit back in my chair and ponder just how…

To repeat a quote that probably appears in every Von Neumann post, "Teller also said "von Neumann would carry on a conversation with my 3-year-old son, and the two of them would talk as equals, and I sometimes wondered if he used the same principle when he talked to the rest of us."

Obligatory Edward Teller talking about Von Neumann => https://youtu.be/ra4K6WPUkpk

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

#153

Post by hollerith »

csbartus wrote: post #146

> includes the first introduction of the concept of a class, defined using the primitive notions of functions and arguments. Might he be the inventor of OO programming ?? :)

In "metamathematics" in the 1920s, sets were divided into 2 kinds or types as an attempt to evade a certain paradox. ("The set of all men who do not shave themselves" if I recall correctly.) One of those kinds of sets were called classes.

So, nothing to do with OOP.

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

#154

Post by jonahx »

pointedset wrote: post #10
hintymad wrote: post #3

I often use von Neumann's quote, "Young man, in mathematics you don't understand things. You just get used to them.", to console myself when I have to read a math book multiple times to really understand something. The quote also has truth in it. I had no problem accepting that 0! = 1 only because I learnt that fact early in school. However, I struggled quite a bit to accept that span({}) = {0}, even though it is not…

Yes, those two facts about zero/empty cases (and so many more) are definitely related, and this class of facts is one of my favourites! Usually, if you're dealing with something algebraic in flavour (which is a very vague concept, sorry), there will be a sensible way to define the zero/empty case. This is often a good test of whether you have a uniform concept that works for all n without corner cases. It almost irri…

> what's the determinant of the 0x0 matrix (over your favourite field or ring)?

1, because 0x0 seems like a more elegant base case for the recursive det formula than 1x1.

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

#155

Post by jorgenveisdal »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #86

My Dad knew and worked with von Neumann at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton. My Dad says nice things about him and mentioned eccentricities like working through the night and playing music loudly.

Hi Mark. My name is Jørgen Veisdal, I wrote the essay. I’d love to interview your dad for a book project I am doing. Any chance he might be available for something like that?

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

#157

Post by tome »

koolba wrote: post #45
Frost1x wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I often wonder if there are points in human understanding where there is an opportunistic amount of existing knowledge, current exploration of knowledge, and sets of ideas floating around that lead to these sorts of surges of shared ideas and principles in disciplines. While it's no doubt from accounts Nuemann was brilliant, I've observed other brilliant people who I feel could be ground breaking minds given the righ…

Him and Einstein also did not have to contend with getting jobs optimizing ad placement. Necessity is the mother of invention. But abstract thought requires time to focus on things outside the mundane.

Einstein had a job as a patent clerk!

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

#158

Post by randomsearch »

person_of_color wrote: post #111

Lets speculate this is entirely nurture. How do you get as smart as von Neumann? Zettelkasten?

Have a lot of money, be privileged to work with lots of very smart people, and spend a lot of time learning from the sound of this article.

I'm always super-suspicious when I hear someone's brilliance described in anecdotes. Some people are better at promoting themselves than others. So perhaps judge him only by his published work and not his reputation.

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

#159

Post by hntrader »

stephc_int13 wrote: post #137
hntrader wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Heritability of traits is not always directly genetic.

Correct.

I was asking what the basis is for your confidence that it positively isn't substantially genetic.

We know that intelligence is highly heritable, which leaves a few possible explanations, genetics being one of them (along with prenatal nutrition, prenatal lead exposure, etc).

If you're going to claim that genetics is only a small part of the reason that it's heritable, then that has its own burden of proof that needs to be met.

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

#160

Post by tdfirth »

Here is a fairly old documentary about 'Johnny' von Neumann:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2jiQXI6nrE

He was a myth even in his own lifetime but parts of that film hint at the man. It features interviews with many of his old colleagues, discussion of what it was like to work with him, etc.

If you just watch one bit, personally I love the anecdote that begins around here:

https://youtu.be/Y2jiQXI6nrE?t=2604

It is a story of his incredible facility for mental arithmetic that I hadn't heard before. It is arguably one of his least impressive skills but for me it illustrates so clearly the gap between him and his peers.

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