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The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann

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Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann

#161

Post by daseiner1 »

spookthesunset wrote: post #157
x220 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've taken a medication that occasionally makes me feel stupid. For a day I might be unable to continue reading a book without re-reading each sentence a few times. I might not be able to talk to people about a complicated or technical subject without stumbling over my words. I will find it difficult to think in the abstract terms, and when I listen to others who talk about abstract values and concepts I have to cont…

> 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…

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Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann

#162

Post by geoka9 »

jasonwatkinspdx wrote: post #152
failrate wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sad reality is that cognitive decline over age is more likely than not. I have prebuilt a set of habits that I hope will serve me for when I need to rely on them to get me through the day.

I had a conversation with an elderly neurologist at a wedding on this topic. His top item of advice was to do things that put your awareness into your moving body as much as possible, as a daily habit. No surprise he and his wife were the only folks in their age bracket rocking out on the dance floor later.

> to do things that put your awareness into your moving body as much as possible

Could you explain it in simpler terms?

Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann

#163

Post by corporate_shi11 »

Scaevolus wrote: post #108
mikorym wrote: post #25

In an answer to the question of why there is no evidence of intelligent life beyond earth despite the high probability of it existing, Szilárd responded: "They are already here among us – they just call themselves Hungarians." [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martians_(scientists)

For a depressing analysis on where all the Hungarian geniuses came from and why they vanished: https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/05/26/the-atomic-bomb-consid...

Interesting. I never knew about the link between Ashkenazi genetics and intelligence.

Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann

#164

Post by ironyman »

I've recently been engrossed by the question of how geniuses and highly intelligent people think. There's bits and pieces of information online. What I'd really like to see, though, is (a) geniuses describe their thought process and (b) a smart person voicing is interior monologue while attacking a problem.

1) Do you know of any information like this? Link?

2) Otherwise: do you think in a way that's different (better) than the average person?

Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann

#165

Post by yellowstuff »

spookthesunset wrote: post #157
x220 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've taken a medication that occasionally makes me feel stupid. For a day I might be unable to continue reading a book without re-reading each sentence a few times. I might not be able to talk to people about a complicated or technical subject without stumbling over my words. I will find it difficult to think in the abstract terms, and when I listen to others who talk about abstract values and concepts I have to cont…

> 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…

You may be using "smarter" to mean something different than IQ, but if you mean IQ then you're wrong. Different professions have different distributions of IQ, and programmers are among the professions with the highest average IQ. They definitely skew higher than house painters.

https://www.iqcomparisonsite.com/Occupations.aspx

Programmers may not be wiser, kinder, or better than anyone else, but on average they are a bit smarter.

Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann

#166

Post by timmaxw »

dr_dshiv wrote: post #29

Von Neumann invented a novel paradigm for computing using harmonic integration of analog oscillations. The patent was granted after his death. While there were a few prototypes in the 50s, the transistor killed it. A fully functional version of this computational architecture has never been built, to my knowledge: https://patents.google.com/patent/US2815488A/en

For anyone who's interested in more detail:

This type of computer is also called a "parametron" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parametron). A Japanese researcher named Eiichi Goto independently invented it around the same time as von Neumann, and developed it much further than von Neumann did, so the idea is more often associated with Goto than with von Neumann.

The basic idea is that if a nonlinear harmonic oscillator is driven at twice its resonant frequency, it will oscillate stably in either of two phases. The two phases represent "0" and "1". If the driving signal is switched off and on again, the oscillator will arbitrarily "pick" a phase to stabilize on. If it's exposed to an input signal from another oscillator as it's turning on, it will always pick the same phase as the input signal. This makes it possible to copy a "0" or "1" from one oscillator to another. If the oscillator is exposed to input signals from several other oscillators, it will pick by "majority vote". Finally, a NOT-gate can be built by inverting the signal polarity. This set of primitives is sufficient to build arbitrary logic gates and flip-flops.

Goto's paper has an excellent explanation and more detail:

Goto, E. (1959). The Parametron, a Digital Computing Element Which Utilizes Parametric Oscillation. Proceedings of the IRE, 47(8), 1304–1316. doi:10.1109/jrproc.1959.287195

(PDF available at https://sci-hub.tw/10.1109/JRPROC.1959.287195)

Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann

#167

Post by timmaxw »

adamnemecek wrote: post #91
dr_dshiv wrote: post #29

Von Neumann invented a novel paradigm for computing using harmonic integration of analog oscillations. The patent was granted after his death. While there were a few prototypes in the 50s, the transistor killed it. A fully functional version of this computational architecture has never been built, to my knowledge: https://patents.google.com/patent/US2815488A/en

Do you have any more info on this?

See my comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21551082

Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann

#168

Post by chx »

nabla9 wrote: post #54
_ugfj wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Hungary had a great education system at the time. I seriously doubt you could back this. You are generalizing from a single school. Might as well argue that socialist Hungary had a great education system because of Fazekas. Neither are true. I happen to have a maths teacher degree from a Hungarian university and we studied Hungarian education history and I learned much more about education systems later on my own (…

Mathematics culture and mathematical pedagogy in Hungary has legendary reputation. I don't know how their system works now,but at least up to 80s or 90s it was seen as being the highest level. It emphasized creativity, communication and problem solving. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-28582-5_...

> but at least up to 80s or 90s it was seen as being the highest level. It emphasized creativity, communication and problem solving.

What utter baloney! There were a few, very few special math classes that went against the system which delivered results. I went to one, I should know...

Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann

#169

Post by chx »

0-_-0 wrote: post #69
_ugfj wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Hungary had a great education system at the time. I seriously doubt you could back this. You are generalizing from a single school. Might as well argue that socialist Hungary had a great education system because of Fazekas. Neither are true. I happen to have a maths teacher degree from a Hungarian university and we studied Hungarian education history and I learned much more about education systems later on my own (…

While having a much smaller population (10M), Hungary places 4th in worldwide medal rankings on the International Mathematics Olympiad [1] behind China (1.5B), USA (300M) and Russia (150M) [1]: https://www.imo-official.org/results_country.aspx?column=awa...

There were a few, very few special math classes that went against the system which delivered results. I went to one, I should know...

Re: The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann

#170

Post by spookthesunset »

yellowstuff wrote: post #165
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…

You may be using "smarter" to mean something different than IQ, but if you mean IQ then you're wrong. Different professions have different distributions of IQ, and programmers are among the professions with the highest average IQ. They definitely skew higher than house painters. https://www.iqcomparisonsite.com/Occupations.aspx Programmers may not be wiser, kinder, or better than anyone else, but on average they are…

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