Johnny Von Neumann (1903–1957)

The only student of mine I was ever intimidated by. He was so quick. There was a
seminar for advanced students in Zürich that I was teaching and von Neumann was in
the class. I came to a certain theorem, and I said it is not proved and it may be difficult.
Von Neumann didn't say anything but after five minutes he raised his hand. When I
called on him he went to the blackboard and proceeded to write down the proof. After
that I was afraid of von Neumann.
Source: George Pólya, in How to Solve It (1957) 2nd edition, p. xv; also in The Pólya
Picture Album (1987), p. 154

I have sometimes wondered whether a brain like von Neumann's does not indicate
a species superior to that of man.

Source: Hans Bethe of Cornell University, as quoted in LIFE Magazine (1957), pp. 89-104

He consulted for the government to help develop the ENIAC, early computer.
Von Neumann is considered the father of computing.
Sadly, he contracted cancer and his health declined rapidly. On his deathbed he
converted to Catholicism (he had been an agnostic). After he received last rights he
recited word for word the beginning of each page Goethe’s Faust from memory.

Source: LIFE

Source: Wikipedia

Von Neumann was one of the first to describe the technological singularity. This is a
process by which the growth of information technologies increases exponentially,
eventually reaching such a point that it is difficult to fully understand what happens after
that, as all the usual understandings of technological possibility transcend the
imagination.
The largest contributor to the future that you may not have ever heard of

Take a moment to consider if you’re familiar with or have heard of the following terms.

 In the field of physics and related events — Manhattan Project, Atomic Energy
Commission, mutual assured destruction (MAD), hydrogen bomb, quantum
mechanics, fluid dynamics, Dirac-von Neumann axioms, density matrix
 In the field of computing — Merge sort, Monte Carlo method, pseudorandom
numbers, quantum computing, quantum information theory, quantum logic,
linear programming, concept of the technological singularity
 In the field of mathematics — Set theory, ordinal numbers, von Neumann
paradox, Ergodic theory, operator theory, measure theory, continuous
geometry, lattice theory, game theory, mathematical economics, mathematical
statistics
 In other related fields — Theory of self-replication (DNA), cellular automata,
von Neumann universal constructor, von Neumann probe, computed weather
forecasting, concept of global warming

An Overview of John von Neumann’s Life

John von Neumann (pronounced von Noy-mun) has either invented, pioneered, or
heavily contributed to each of these fields. Von Neumann was born in Budapest,
Hungary, on December 28, 1903, to a wealthy, nonobservant Jewish family.

To say that von Neumann was one of the smartest human beings to ever walk the face
of the planet would be an understatement. By the age of 6, von Neumann was able to
divide two eight-digit numbers instantly in his head. By the age of 8, he was familiar
with both differential and integral calculus. His education, at one of the top schools in
Budapest, saw von Neumann graduate with one of the greatest academic cohorts in
history, which included mathematician Paul Erdos and physicist Edward Tellar; the group
came to be known as “the Martians.”

At age 19, von Neumann had published papers detailing the now-modern definition of
ordinal numbers, earning himself the Eotvos national prize for mathematics. In 1926, he
graduated with a simultaneous Ph.D. in mathematics and a bachelor’s degree in
chemical engineering (the latter at his father’s insistence). In 1928, he was the youngest
person to ever be elected privatdozent (a studying professor) at the University of Berlin.

John von Neumann’s Role in the Manhattan Project

After completing his education, von Neumann emigrated to the United States upon
invitation from Princeton University in New Jersey as a professor of mathematical
physics. Von Neumann took a great interest in the field of explosions, which was very
difficult to model accurately at the time without computers, given the highly dynamic
nature of the subject.

His work eventually led him to be recruited for the Manhattan Project, which was tasked
with developing the first atomic bomb. He made a critical contribution to the project,
developing the concept and design of the bomb ignition.

Put simply, a fission nuclear device works by creating a high-pressure, high-temperature

compression of a uranium-235 core, or a “supercritical core.” This creates a state in
which neutrons produced from the rapidly decaying uranium-235 have a high
probability of impacting other uranium-235 atoms, causing them to decay and produce
a chain reaction, releasing high amounts of energy in the form of heat and light.

In order to produce this supercritical state, many methods were suggested. Von
Neumann’s method was the one that succeeded, and is still in use today. Here’s how it
works: By carefully modeling a series of shaped explosions around the core to detonate
simultaneously, the high temperatures and pressures needed for ignition are produced.
This is known as the implosion assembly method.

Implosion mechanism

John von Neumann’s Work on the Atomic Energy Commission

After his work on the Manhattan project, von Neumann went on to be a key member of
the Atomic Energy Commission. His work on nuclear devices continued, and eventually
led to the development of the hydrogen bomb.

Von Neumann is also credited with the development of the equilibrium strategy of
mutual assured destruction. The goal of this is to assure the non-use of nuclear
weapons, by assuring that any attacker using such weapons would be completely
obliterated by their opponents, as any mass nuclear strike cannot possibly destroy all
missiles in an enemy arsenal, and even a small percentage of surviving devices can
cause massive devastation.

Von Neumann was convinced that his Soviet scientist counterparts were hard at work on
the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) nuclear delivery system and urged his
superiors to work on similar systems. His predictions were soon shown to be correct
after the Soviets launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, proving to the world that
the Soviets had developed the capability to launch a payload to any location on the
planet. For his work in national defense, former President Dwight D. Eisenhower
awarded von Neumann the Medal of Freedom.

John von Neumann’s Contributions to the Computing Field

Von Neumann also made revolutionary contributions in the field of computing that
went on to influence other related fields. Von Neumann founded the first mathematical
framework for quantum mechanics, now known as the Dirac-von Neumann axioms.

His work laid the foundation for quantum logic and the creation of quantum computers,
of which we are just beginning to take advantage of nearly a hundred years later. He
invented the mathematical foundation for game theory, which is used in many scientific
fields including computing, economics, and psychology. He also revolutionized the field
of economics by inventing the mathematical models for simulating an economy.

Von Neumann is said to have invented merge sort on the fly, after being asked a one-
off question by one of his colleagues. He invented the Monte Carlo method, which
utilizes random sampling to obtain numerical results for a given problem; this is used in
the fields of engineering, meteorology, statistics, finance, and law. Von Neumann also
invented the concept of self-replication, which assisted with the discovery of DNA and is
the core concept behind von Neumann probes.

John von Neumann’s Work in Mathematics

Von Neumann’s greatest contributions, however, were in the field of mathematics. He

revolutionized set theory with his doctoral thesis, “The Axiom of Foundation.” His
method of inner models would go on to become an essential instrument in set theory.
He made foundational contributions to nearly every branch of mathematics, including
ergodic theory, operator theory, measure theory, continuous geometry, and lattice
theory.

Of von Neumann’s computational skill, he was said to be superhuman. Some of his

contemporaries on the Manhattan Project made such remarks as “I have sometimes
wondered whether a brain like von Neumann's does not indicate a species superior to
that of man,” and “One had the impression of a perfect instrument whose gears were
machined to mesh accurately to a thousandth of an inch.”

Many said that keeping up with von Neumann was impossible. George Dantzig once
came to von Neumann with an unsolved linear programing problem, and von Neumann
responded with an hour-long, off-the-cuff lecture on the hitherto unconceived theory of
duality, which solved the problem.
Von Neumann also possessed the power of absolute recall. Once he was asked to recite
“A Tale of Two Cities” before being asked to stop after a perfect 15-minute recitation.

The von Neumann crater

John von Neumann’s Legacy

Von Neumann died of cancer in 1955, at the age of 53. Many awards in mathematics are
named in his honor, including the John von Neumann Theory Prize and the IEEE John
von Neumann Medal. The von Neumann crater on the moon is named after him. The
John von Neumann University was established in Hungary in 2016 in his name.

Von Neumann’s presence on Earth, while brief, will be felt for centuries to come.
Von Neumann with Robert Oppenheimer, working at the Manhattan Project to develop
the atomic bomb.

Von Neumann’s work in computing was essential:

Von Neumann joined Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in 1933, the same
year as his mentor, Albert Einstein. Like many of those initially hired by IAS, Von
Neumann was a mathematician by training.

During the war, he worked at Los Alamos on the mathematics of explosive shockwaves
for the implosion-type Fat Man weapon. He worked with IBM mechanical tabulating
machines, tailored for this specific purpose. As he grew familiar with the tabulators, he
began to imagine a more general machine, one that could handle far more general
mathematical challenges—a computer.

Near the end of the war, von Neumann put together a report on the architecture of such
a machine—today, that architecture is still called the von Neumann architecture. His
work relied on the thoughts of Alan Turing, a young mathematician at Princeton whose
work had defined the limits of computability. His dream of a general machine was
already being implemented—in the form of ENIAC.

When von Neumann returned to Princeton after the war, he built the IAS computer,
which implemented his von Neumann architecture. Starting in 1945, the IAS computer
took six years to build. Meanwhile, the British "Manchester Baby" computer, the first
stored program computer, successfully ran its first program in 1948; the Electronic Delay
Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC) at Cambridge University followed suit in 1949.
Once the IAS computer was complete, its basic design was re-implemented in more
than twenty different other computers all over the world.

Source: Computing and the Manhattan Project