The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann (2019)

Post by dolmen » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 7:43 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.

Post by vixen99 » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 7:49 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.

Post by OscarCunningham » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 8:12 AM UTC

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…

Post by xscott » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 8:20 AM UTC

Koshkin wrote: post #41

jhgb wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. And so, begun the array indexing war has.

A polynomial always includes a member (monomial) with the power zero. It seems natural, therefore, to index the coefficients correspondingly. In other situations, 1 may be the more natural starting index.

Post by BlueTemplar » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 8:41 AM UTC

pbsd wrote: post #35

inasio wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I heard or read a story from Freeman Dyson about a somewhat legendary conference where von Neumann was to present his version of Hilbert's problems, presumably about the new computing age, I think at the IAS. It was highly anticipated, but Dyson and everybody else present were shocked because von Neumann was in a state of advanced mental decline when he presented it, and people there agreed to pretend it hadn't happe…

This is probably the story in page 220 of [1], beginning at "Von Neumann got into trouble at the end of his life because he was really a frog but everyone expected him to fly like a bird.". [1] http://www.uvm.edu/pdodds/files/papers/others/2009/dyson2009...