He was a "regular guy" - in some respects, that is. Ebullient, gregarious, witty, and charming, he loved to eat, drink, tell jokes, and had a limerick - mostly off color - for any occasion.
His second wife claimed he could count everything except calories. When hosting parties, he would get bored, retreat to an adjoining room to work, yet while listening to the conversation, chime in when he had something to say.
He loved to drive and to read - at the same time, resulting in numerous accidents and arrests. He could recite word for word entire books that he had read decades ago.
A "regular guy," but surely no ordinary guy. By age of 6, he could exchange jokes in classical Greek and memorize telephone books on sight. As a teenager, he could instantly solve complex problems in advanced calculus. At age 22, he received his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Budapest while simultaneously earning a diploma in chemical engineering from an institute in Switzerland.
John von Neumann was the contemporary of another Hungarian genius, Edward Teller. Both would be key figures in the Manhattan Project and the development of the atomic bomb at Los Alamos, New Mexico.
The more familiar names associated with the Manhattan Project include J. Robert Oppenheimer, Edward Teller, General Leslie Groves, and Klaus Fuchs, the German scientist who leaked atomic secrets to the Soviets - under the noses of the FBI while J. Edgar Hoover and his gumshoes wasted time and resources shadowing Oppenheimer's every move.
Names less familiar to the general public include Hans Bethe, I.I. Rabbi, George Placzek, Victor Weiskopf, Stanislaw Ulam, Eugene Wigner, and many others. Of the less familiar names, it was John von Neumann who doubtlessly left the greatest impact on academia and the broader society. While von Neumann didn't invent the modern computer, he was a true visionary of its potential and was very influential in its early development.
Von Neumann joined the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton in 1930 along with colleague Albert Einstein. Von Neumann was heralded by colleagues as "the greatest mathematician of his generation," and "the last of the great mathematicians." His colleague at Los Alamos, Hans Bethe, asserted, "I have sometimes wondered whether a brain like von Neumann's does not indicate a species superior to that of man." Another colleague described him as possessing the most "fearsome technical prowess" and "scintillating intellect" of the century.
Von Neumann made contributions to a vast number of fields, not limited to, but including set theory, functional analysis, quantum mechanics, ergodic theory, fluid dynamics, computer science, hydrodynamics, statistics, mathematical economic theory, and game theory, to which we will return - next column. His mathematical analysis of the structure of self-replication preceded the discovery of DNA.
During the 1930s, von Neumann developed an expertise in explosions - difficult to model mathematically. This led to consultancies with the Navy and eventually to participation in the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos. He made a principal contribution to the concept and design of the explosive lenses to compress the plutonium core of the bomb tested at the Trinity Site in New Mexico, and "The Fat Man" dropped on Nagasaki.
Von Neumann determined that the effectiveness of the bomb would be enhanced with detonation above the target rather than at ground level. He was a member of the target committee that selected Hiroshima and Nagasaki as the eventual targets. He, along with General Groves, initially recommended Kyoto, which had been spared the firebombing during the war. But Secretary of War Henry Stimson, cognizant of Japanese culture and the need to make Japan an ally after the war, ruled out Kyoto because of its cultural and historical significance to the Japanese people.
Horrified by the terrible human toll of the nuclear weapons dropped on Japan, many scientists, led by Oppenheimer, opposed development of even more powerful weapons such as "the super," or hydrogen bomb. The rift between Oppenheimer and Teller that festered during the Manhattan Project widened with the new relevance of nuclear scientists to the political and foreign policy arena. Like Teller, von Neumann was politically conservative and favored development of "the super."
Before the espionage of Klaus Fuchs was discovered, von Neumann collaborated with Fuchs in the hydrogen bomb project, designing the Fuchs-von Neumann patent for initiating a thermonuclear reaction. Fuchs passed this work on to the Soviets as part of his ongoing espionage. Ironically, it was not used. The Soviets independently came up with a design similar to that figured out by Edward Teller and Stan Ulam, the Teller-Ulam design.
During his service on the Atomic Energy Commission, von Neumann developed various scenarios of nuclear proliferation and was influential in development of the controversial strategic equilibrium of "mutual assured destruction."
Von Neumann not only differed philosophically with Oppenheimer, but also disliked him personally. But Teller and von Neumann took different paths during Oppenheimer's security hearings in 1954. Teller's damning testimony was the final "nail in the coffin" that ended Oppenheimer's career in public service. It also made Teller a pariah in the scientific community.
In contrast to Teller, von Neumann testified on Oppenheimer's behalf, and always insisted that the government treated Oppenheimer very badly.
Among von Neumann's many lasting contributions was his collaboration with Oskar Morgenstern to publish the "Theory of Games and Economic Behavior." Game theory can get very complex, but has many applications in the real world. At its simplest, it can explain why two or more actors with incomplete information, each seeking own self-interest, often end up with results that are unsatisfactory, i.e., less than optimal, for both.
Next week: An application, illustrated by the "prisoner's dilemma."
- John Waelti of Monroe can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net. His column appears each Friday in The Monroe Times.
His second wife claimed he could count everything except calories. When hosting parties, he would get bored, retreat to an adjoining room to work, yet while listening to the conversation, chime in when he had something to say.
He loved to drive and to read - at the same time, resulting in numerous accidents and arrests. He could recite word for word entire books that he had read decades ago.
A "regular guy," but surely no ordinary guy. By age of 6, he could exchange jokes in classical Greek and memorize telephone books on sight. As a teenager, he could instantly solve complex problems in advanced calculus. At age 22, he received his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Budapest while simultaneously earning a diploma in chemical engineering from an institute in Switzerland.
John von Neumann was the contemporary of another Hungarian genius, Edward Teller. Both would be key figures in the Manhattan Project and the development of the atomic bomb at Los Alamos, New Mexico.
The more familiar names associated with the Manhattan Project include J. Robert Oppenheimer, Edward Teller, General Leslie Groves, and Klaus Fuchs, the German scientist who leaked atomic secrets to the Soviets - under the noses of the FBI while J. Edgar Hoover and his gumshoes wasted time and resources shadowing Oppenheimer's every move.
Names less familiar to the general public include Hans Bethe, I.I. Rabbi, George Placzek, Victor Weiskopf, Stanislaw Ulam, Eugene Wigner, and many others. Of the less familiar names, it was John von Neumann who doubtlessly left the greatest impact on academia and the broader society. While von Neumann didn't invent the modern computer, he was a true visionary of its potential and was very influential in its early development.
Von Neumann joined the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton in 1930 along with colleague Albert Einstein. Von Neumann was heralded by colleagues as "the greatest mathematician of his generation," and "the last of the great mathematicians." His colleague at Los Alamos, Hans Bethe, asserted, "I have sometimes wondered whether a brain like von Neumann's does not indicate a species superior to that of man." Another colleague described him as possessing the most "fearsome technical prowess" and "scintillating intellect" of the century.
Von Neumann made contributions to a vast number of fields, not limited to, but including set theory, functional analysis, quantum mechanics, ergodic theory, fluid dynamics, computer science, hydrodynamics, statistics, mathematical economic theory, and game theory, to which we will return - next column. His mathematical analysis of the structure of self-replication preceded the discovery of DNA.
During the 1930s, von Neumann developed an expertise in explosions - difficult to model mathematically. This led to consultancies with the Navy and eventually to participation in the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos. He made a principal contribution to the concept and design of the explosive lenses to compress the plutonium core of the bomb tested at the Trinity Site in New Mexico, and "The Fat Man" dropped on Nagasaki.
Von Neumann determined that the effectiveness of the bomb would be enhanced with detonation above the target rather than at ground level. He was a member of the target committee that selected Hiroshima and Nagasaki as the eventual targets. He, along with General Groves, initially recommended Kyoto, which had been spared the firebombing during the war. But Secretary of War Henry Stimson, cognizant of Japanese culture and the need to make Japan an ally after the war, ruled out Kyoto because of its cultural and historical significance to the Japanese people.
Horrified by the terrible human toll of the nuclear weapons dropped on Japan, many scientists, led by Oppenheimer, opposed development of even more powerful weapons such as "the super," or hydrogen bomb. The rift between Oppenheimer and Teller that festered during the Manhattan Project widened with the new relevance of nuclear scientists to the political and foreign policy arena. Like Teller, von Neumann was politically conservative and favored development of "the super."
Before the espionage of Klaus Fuchs was discovered, von Neumann collaborated with Fuchs in the hydrogen bomb project, designing the Fuchs-von Neumann patent for initiating a thermonuclear reaction. Fuchs passed this work on to the Soviets as part of his ongoing espionage. Ironically, it was not used. The Soviets independently came up with a design similar to that figured out by Edward Teller and Stan Ulam, the Teller-Ulam design.
During his service on the Atomic Energy Commission, von Neumann developed various scenarios of nuclear proliferation and was influential in development of the controversial strategic equilibrium of "mutual assured destruction."
Von Neumann not only differed philosophically with Oppenheimer, but also disliked him personally. But Teller and von Neumann took different paths during Oppenheimer's security hearings in 1954. Teller's damning testimony was the final "nail in the coffin" that ended Oppenheimer's career in public service. It also made Teller a pariah in the scientific community.
In contrast to Teller, von Neumann testified on Oppenheimer's behalf, and always insisted that the government treated Oppenheimer very badly.
Among von Neumann's many lasting contributions was his collaboration with Oskar Morgenstern to publish the "Theory of Games and Economic Behavior." Game theory can get very complex, but has many applications in the real world. At its simplest, it can explain why two or more actors with incomplete information, each seeking own self-interest, often end up with results that are unsatisfactory, i.e., less than optimal, for both.
Next week: An application, illustrated by the "prisoner's dilemma."
- John Waelti of Monroe can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net. His column appears each Friday in The Monroe Times.
