Ananyo Bhattacharya is the author of The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann. He is a science writer who has worked at the Economist and Nature. Before journalism, he was a medical researcher at the Burnham Institute in San Diego, California. He holds a degree in physics from the University of Oxford and a PhD in protein crystallography from Imperial College London. Episode website + Transcript: https://www.dwarkeshpatel.com/p/ ananyo-bhattacharya Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3RkYMNW Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3pWH9rV Follow me on Twitter to be notified of future content: https://twitter.com/dwarkesh_sp Follow Ananyo on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ananyo Buy The Man From The Future: https://www.amazon.com/Man-Future-Visionary-Life-Neumann/dp/1324003995 Timestamps: 0:00:00 Intro 0:00:30 John Von Neumann - The Man From The Future 0:02:29 The Forgotten Father of Game Theory 0:16:04 The last representative of the great mathematicians 0:19:45 Did John Von Neumann have a Miracle year? 0:26:31 The fundamental theorem of John von Neumann’s game theory 0:29:34 The strong supporter of "preventive war” 0:50:51 We can't all be superhuman
Ananyo Bhattacharya is the author of The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann. He is a science writer who has worked at the Economist and Nature. Before journalism, he was a medical researcher at the Burnham Institute in San Diego, California. He holds a degree in physics from the University of Oxford and a PhD in protein crystallography from Imperial College London. Episode website + Transcript: https://www.dwarkeshpatel.com/p/ ananyo-bhattacharya Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3RkYMNW Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3pWH9rV Follow me on Twitter to be notified of future content: https://twitter.com/dwarkesh_sp Follow Ananyo on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ananyo Buy The Man From The Future: https://www.amazon.com/Man-Future-Visionary-Life-Neumann/dp/1324003995 Timestamps: 0:00:00 Intro 0:00:30 John Von Neumann - The Man From The Future 0:02:29 The Forgotten Father of Game Theory 0:16:04 The last representative of the great mathematicians 0:19:45 Did John Von Neumann have a Miracle year? 0:26:31 The fundamental theorem of John von Neumann’s game theory 0:29:34 The strong supporter of "preventive war” 0:50:51 We can't all be superhuman
Ananyo Bhattacharya is the author of *The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann*, a brilliant biography of one of the most prolific and influential scientists to have ever lived. He joins the show to discuss von Neumann’s contributions to quantum physics, game theory, the Manhattan Project, and much more! - Ananyo’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/ananyo - The Man from the Future - https://www.amazon.com/Man-Future-Visionary-Life-Neumann/dp/1324003995 Books Mentioned: - The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann; by Ananyo Bhattacharya - The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World; by David Deutsch - The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism; by Howard Bloom - Theory of Games and Economic Behaviour; by John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern Show notes 00:00 Intro 01:19 Main Podcast 01:34 How did John von Neumann even exist? 06:38 Would von Neumann’s discoveries have happened without him? 09:31 The Martians of Hungary 15:17 The migrant mentality 21:08 Innovation in the face of extinction 23:46 Science, genius & the herd mentality 28:53 Von Neumann’s contribution to quantum physics 42:18 Game theory, Minimax and zero-sum games 01:00:01 von Neumann: quant in the streets; romantic in the sheets 01:06:04 The eccentricity of brilliance 01:10:59 von Neumann and the Manhattan Project 01:24:08 The godfather of the open source movement 01:27:24 Von Neumann as a project manager 01:32:17 How writing the book changed Ananyo’s understanding of von Neumann 01:41:00 Ananyo’s next projects
Our guest Ananyo Bhattacharya argues that von Neumann can be seen as the godfather of the open-source movement...
“[von Neumann] comes along at this…remarkable moment in the early 20th century, when so many things are just about to…explode into being.”
“That was where he got his power, just unpicking what seems extraordinarily complex and laying it out in simple, logical terms and then just bulldozing his way through it.” Here’s Ananyo Bhattacharya on how von Neumann interacted with the world around him.