<story><title>A new biography of John von Neumann</title><url>https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/a-new-biography-explains-the-genius-of-john-von-neumann/21805346</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>photochemsyn</author><text>John von Neumann was certainly involved in a lot of scientific discoveries, but from the review this looks more like a hagiography with a goal of rehabilitating the reputation of an incredibly gifted scientist&amp;#x2F;mathematician whose coziness with the military-industrial complex remains controversial to this day.  &amp;#x27;John von Neumann, the theorist of mutual assured destruction&amp;#x27;, is how many still view his record.&lt;p&gt;John von Neumann&amp;#x27;s record illustrates why brilliant scientists may not be the best architects of foreign policy.
In particular, von Neumann&amp;#x27;s belief in the inevitability of nuclear war led him to call for a first strike against Soviet cities before they could develop a nuclear arsenal. This is a rather difficult political-moral-ethical position to rehabilitate.  One also gets the sense that a JvN was a bit stingy with sharing credit on major breakthroughs in computing.&lt;p&gt;Generally I find these &amp;#x27;heroic genius&amp;#x27; books about scientific personalities to get stale over time, while books that focus on the discoveries themselves and the many people who contributed are far more interesting and historically accurate.  Richard Rhodes&amp;#x27;s excellent work on the American and Soviet nuclear weapons programs is an example of the latter approach.</text></comment>
<story><title>A new biography of John von Neumann</title><url>https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/a-new-biography-explains-the-genius-of-john-von-neumann/21805346</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>1cvmask</author><text>The alien rat pack of STEM:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;The_Martians_(scientists)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;The_Martians_(scientists)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;-&lt;p&gt;My favorite interaction is of von Neumann with Shannon regarding the coining of entropy:&lt;p&gt;What von Neumann Said to Shannon
When Shannon first derived his famous formula for information, he asked von Neumann what he should call it and von Neumann replied “You should call it entropy for two reasons: first because that is what the formula is in statistical mechanises but second and more important, as nobody knows what entropy is, whenever you use the term you will always be at an advantage!&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.spatialcomplexity.info&amp;#x2F;what-von-neumann-said-to-shannon&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.spatialcomplexity.info&amp;#x2F;what-von-neumann-said-to-s...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>