From the author of When We Cease to Understand the World : a dazzling, kaleidoscopic book about the destructive chaos lurking in the history of computing and AI 'Monstrously good... Reads like a dark foundation myth about modern technology but told with the pace of a thriller' Mark Haddon John von Neumann was a titan of science. A Hungarian wunderkind who revolutionized every field he touched, his mathematical powers were so exceptional that Hans Bethe - a Nobel Prize-winning physicist - thought he might represent the ...
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From the author of When We Cease to Understand the World : a dazzling, kaleidoscopic book about the destructive chaos lurking in the history of computing and AI 'Monstrously good... Reads like a dark foundation myth about modern technology but told with the pace of a thriller' Mark Haddon John von Neumann was a titan of science. A Hungarian wunderkind who revolutionized every field he touched, his mathematical powers were so exceptional that Hans Bethe - a Nobel Prize-winning physicist - thought he might represent the next step in human evolution. After seeking the foundations of mathematics during his youth in Germany, von Neumann emigrated to the United States, where he became entangled in the power games of the Cold War; he designed the world's first programmable computer, invented game theory, pioneered AI and digital life, and helped create the atomic bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He was the darling of the military industrial complex, but when illness unmoored his mind, his work pushed further into areas beyond human comprehension and control. The MANIAC places von Neumann at the center of a literary triptych about the dark foundations of our modern world and the nascent era of AI. It begins with Paul Ehrenfest, an Austrian physicist and close friend of Einstein, who fell into despair when he saw science and technology become tyrannical forces; it ends a hundred years later, in the showdown between the South Korean Go Master, Lee Sedol, and the AI program AlphaGo. Braiding fact with fiction, Benjam???n Labatut takes us on a journey to the frontiers of rational thought, where invention outpaces human understanding and offers godlike power, but takes us to the brink of Armageddon.
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Add this copy of The Maniac to cart. $8.04, good condition, Sold by Dream Books Co. rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Denver, CO, UNITED STATES, published 2023 by Penguin Press.
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Good. Gently used with minimal wear on the corners and cover. A few pages may contain light highlighting or writing but the text remains fully legible. Dust jacket may be missing and supplemental materials like CDs or codes may not be included. May be ex-library with library markings. Ships promptly!
Add this copy of The Maniac to cart. $8.04, fair condition, Sold by Dream Books Co. rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Denver, CO, UNITED STATES, published 2023 by Penguin Press.
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Fair. This copy has clearly been enjoyed-expect noticeable shelf wear and some minor creases to the cover. Binding is strong and all pages are legible. May contain previous library markings or stamps.
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The book has been read but is in good condition. There is minor to moderate wear to the outside, including scuffs, corner dings, & edge curls. It stand/lays flat. The majority of pages are undamaged with minimal creasing. Used books should not be expected to come with working access codes or bundled media. Please ask to verify before purchase.
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He took snippets of letters and other descriptive material and wove them into an admittedly fictional but still semi-factual biography of brilliant
mathematicians who not only worked on the famed Manhattan Project during WWII but also crafted many of the underpinnings of the beginnings of the quest for artificial intelligence.
This is a compelling read throughout for anyone interested in the transformational elements of mathematics history in the 20th century!
