Quote:
Originally Posted by gary
Hi Steven,
John Neumann was not just a genius, but by numerous accounts of any of the
scientists and mathematicians that ever encountered him during his life,
he is usually described as the smartest person they ever met.
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As you said in your post, he was keenly interested in applying mathematics to really tough problems in economics and politics and military strategy. Yes, his politics were 'somewhat right of Genghis Khan', but one has to understand that he came from a country that was several times the plaything of totalitarian ideologies such as Nazism and Communism, therefore the feeling was at the time that a muscular and aggressive military posture was the only way to deter further aggression from these sorts of extremist regimes (as distinct from a pacifist posture in which you let your country be overrun by a large gang of organized and fanatical thugs)
Even very smart people like the great physicist Hans Bethe sometimes wondered if von Neumann was actually a new species, as the great speed of his thought and his remarkable memorization abilities were constantly remarked on, even by other super-smart people.
We learn in IT class that the stored program computer in common use has the "von Neumann" architecture.
Of course this could eventually end up as being one of those "oft repeated attributions" that ends up being proved wrong after further historical analysis.....however, I think that all would agree that John von Neumann was a very important figure in many and diverse fields such as pure mathematics, information theory and computing, quantum mechanics, game theory, cellular automata (self-replicating machines and robotics), economics, military theory and policy, and even in the life sciences and meteorology!!
Apparently he did not have the classic nerdy and introverted "mathematician's personality" when in company; he was extroverted, 'quick' with a quip, and sociable.