Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann (2019)

cantorsparadise.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 282 posts

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

#91

Post by [deleted] »

ykl wrote: post #59
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…

They all worked closely together because they all worked on the Manhattan Project. When there’s a single huge government project requiring the nation’s smartest people and on which the survival of the nation depends, it shouldn’t be too surprising that all of the top scientists and mathematicians and engineers all end up working together. :) The fact that so many of them specifically grew up in Hungary, went to schoo…

[deleted]

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

#92

Post by anonytrary »

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…

> Is it perhaps that the limelight is less on mathematicians than it was during the early 20th century?

Everything make sense looking backwards. It is quite possible there are people who exist today in various fields (think AI, crypto, space, vehicles) who will go down in history the same way. Kids will look back in 50 years citing their names, just as we cite Dirac, Einstein, Feynman, Heisenberg, etc. To us, these people are just "scientists", and "engineers" who are also alive at the same time we are. The reward is reaped years later.

Quantum Mechanics' reward was computers and health tech for the most part, but most of that truly started popping off long after the Manhattan project celebs died.

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

#93

Post by KMag »

stephc_int13 wrote: post #52
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.

The differences between apes and humans is much larger than between humans, by at least an order of magnitude.

But that's not a sufficient counter-argument that the GGP post's reasoning is sound. Even single base pair mutations can have huge impacts. A surprising percentage of the human genome is retroviral in origin. As far as I know, "Genetic clock" analysis is the only sound application of counting base pair differences.

I don't think the GP is arguing one way or the other. They seem to be mostly questioning how wide the error bars should be on these statements. It looks like a Socratic twist on "citation needed" without an implication that statements are necessarily wrong.

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

#94

Post by ternaryoperator »

practicalpants wrote: post #49

Always in awe to read about assemblies of great minds like at Princeton's IAS. Does another such assembly exist today? I don't think it does but want to know if others can point to one. Did it happen then because the discoveries were "low hanging" enough that they would be found eventually, such that today we've basically exhausted the major discoverable parts of nature given human limitations, like a depleting orebo…

Reminds me of the comment made by JFK in 1962 when hosting the Nobel Prize winners at the White House: " I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."

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

#95

Post by madhadron »

ducktective wrote: post #63
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…

How come it's known as "von Neumann" architecture?

So a little bit longer version of the story: Eckert and Mauchly had designed the architecture. Herman Goldstine, the military liaison of the ENIAC project, and something of a social climber, sought out von Neumann to see if he was interested. von Neumann was, and came to a lot of design meetings and made contributions about what the instruction set should be. Then when he was heading out to Los Alamos on a trip, he had some downtime during travel and wrote up the design for the group. Goldstine typed it up and circulated it with just von Neumann's name on it.

It is a point of discredit to von Neumann that he did not disavow the naming of the architecture.

Funnily, Goldstine's wife was one of the early programmers and well respected in that area. Goldstine himself made no significant contributions to computing.

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

#96

Post by SquishyPanda23 »

justicezyx wrote: post #88
jshier wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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...

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

#98

Post by hilbertseries »

practicalpants wrote: post #49

Always in awe to read about assemblies of great minds like at Princeton's IAS. Does another such assembly exist today? I don't think it does but want to know if others can point to one. Did it happen then because the discoveries were "low hanging" enough that they would be found eventually, such that today we've basically exhausted the major discoverable parts of nature given human limitations, like a depleting orebo…

When new fields are being researched there’s a ton of low hanging fundamental work that can be done. Over the years all of the low hanging fundamental work is done and research gets more specialized and the amount required to learn increases dramatically.

I don’t think there’s any reason to think people like Gauss and von Neumann are much smarter than a modern day equivalent, say Terrence Tao. But Tao’s work, despite being across many fields, is very specialized and not as well publicized.

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

#99

Post by peter303 »

practicalpants wrote: post #49

Always in awe to read about assemblies of great minds like at Princeton's IAS. Does another such assembly exist today? I don't think it does but want to know if others can point to one. Did it happen then because the discoveries were "low hanging" enough that they would be found eventually, such that today we've basically exhausted the major discoverable parts of nature given human limitations, like a depleting orebo…

MicrosSoft Research and Google Labs have thrown obscene amounts of money at luminaries. But I am not aware of major discoveries or products made by them. Probably past their prime.

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

#100

Post by peter303 »

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.
Post reply on HN