Re:What John von Neumann Did at Los Alamos
by mhh__ on Sunday April 07, 2024 @06:34PM
(#39964554)
It's hard to imagine von Neumann not being great today (I think some stories are probably made up, but he was obviously in the top 1 minds of his era), but it is probably true that the "easy" stuff has been mined - where I would define easy as things that can stem from an application of brains around the coffee table rather than intense application of years of whittling at the conference stage.
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Re:What John von Neumann Did at Los Alamos
by titanomachy on Monday April 08, 2024 @12:07AM
(#39966126)
> in the top 1 minds of his era
Not sure if that’s a typo
Not the author, but probably top 1 percent?
Re:What John von Neumann Did at Los Alamos
by vermilingua on Monday April 08, 2024 @01:58AM
(#39966630)
I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that JvN was the #1 mind of his era
top 1% would be such way out of range. top 0.0001% would still not make it justice.
Re:What John von Neumann Did at Los Alamos
by hiAndrewQuinn on Monday April 08, 2024 @01:32AM
(#39966488)
1 out of every million... Yeah, that sounds about right to me as an actual lower bound.
Re:What John von Neumann Did at Los Alamos
by alex_smart on Monday April 08, 2024 @03:06AM
(#39967006)
Not sure if you’re being facetious? There were not 100 people of the same calibre as JvN in the US or even the world surely.
Re:What John von Neumann Did at Los Alamos
by lordnacho on Monday April 08, 2024 @03:39AM
(#39967196)
JvN, the finished product, probably you're right.
But of the people born with his tools? How many were born into a setting that even cared for intellectual things? How many of them would be born into a wealthy family that could afford to hire private tutors for all their kids?
Yes - probably a lot of regular commenters on HN are among the top 1% in intelligence.
Re:What John von Neumann Did at Los Alamos
by saagarjha on Tuesday April 09, 2024 @02:17AM
(#39976603)
Maybe top 1% of thinking they are ;)
More likely top 10 - if it’s indeed a typo.
"I have sometimes wondered whether a brain like von Neumann's does not indicate a species superior to that of man"
- Hans Bethe
The top 1 percentile was a gross understatement that I should have removed immediately ;) I agree with many commenters.
I would, however, like to point out that 20th century had many, many great minds, also working in the same timeframe. Claude Shannon comes to mind first, but there were many others whose contributions are the basis of technology today.
Re:What John von Neumann Did at Los Alamos
by alex_smart on Monday April 08, 2024 @03:03AM
(#39966988)
Probably not. The figure is the right order of magnitude.
It's a Brian Clough joke
Re:What John von Neumann Did at Los Alamos
by vishnugupta on Monday April 08, 2024 @02:45AM
(#39966895)
Would the present bureaucracy allowed him to flourish to the same extent though? That’s the question.
I honestly think not. Today's climate sidelines generalists.
Re:What John von Neumann Did at Los Alamos
by mptest on Thursday April 11, 2024 @03:23AM
(#39999259)
Anyone stumbling on this thread: A man from the future - ananyo bhattacharya chronicles his life and it is thrilling. If anyone has any of the questions the OP has, the book explains them. There were plenty of open problems then, they just were so unexplored it looked like he and hilbert invented them.
Word of caution, relative to most of you folks I am a mathematical toddler. The book may be overly simple but my calculus professor really enjoyed it.