内容简介

他是数学家，创立了博弈论。

他是计算机科学家，是电子计算机之父，今天几乎所有的计算机都是根据冯·诺依曼体系结构制造的。

他是物理学家，提出了冯·诺依曼意识假说，是提出意识导致波函数坍缩的鼻祖。

他是气象学家，是现代数值天气预报之父。

他是生物学家，其元胞自动机理论为DNA的发现打下了基础。

他是曼哈顿计划的重要参与者与领导者，为原子弹的研发做出较大贡献。

……

爱因斯坦颠覆了我们对时间、空间和引力的理解，哥德尔在形式逻辑领域具有革命性贡献，但认识他们三位的人都指出，冯·诺依曼是迄今为止最聪明的人。

6岁时，能心算8位数乘法。

8岁时，已看完45卷的《世界通史》，学会了微积分。

17岁时，发表了人生的第一篇数学论文，产生了颠覆性影响。

18岁时，在三所大学分别学习化学的本科和研究生与数学的博士生课程。

22岁时，顺利通过博士生答辩。

30岁时，和爱因斯坦等人一起，成为普林斯顿高等研究院的六大教授之一。

冯·诺依曼的那颗“不可思议的大脑”，以及其远非同时代人能望其项背的科学贡献，直接形成了一种难以被解释的“冯·诺依曼现象”。他的思想与我们今天面临的各种挑战密切相关，令人不禁怀疑他莫非一位穿越时空的旅人，悄无声息地孕育着打造地球未来所必须的各种想法。随着时间的流逝，他对诸多领域的贡献，对我们理解世界变得越来越不可或缺。

本书作者带我们踏上了一段令人惊叹的旅程，探索了天才和独特的历史环境如何完美结合，让一个人在惊人的多样化领域中驰骋，并在他所到之处引发革命。要想充分理解21世纪以来的知识潮流，我们必须了解冯·诺依曼的思想是如何帮助商业、科技等领域的新想法变成现实的。环顾四周，冯·诺依曼留下的足迹依然随处可见……

作者简介

曾担任《经济学人》科学记者、《自然》杂志编辑、加州圣迭戈桑福德-伯纳姆-普雷比斯医学发现研究所医学研究员，拥有伦敦帝国理工学院的生物物理学博士学位。阿南约的研究涵盖从科学政策到粒子物理学的方方面面，致力于传播科学。他是一位获奖的社交媒体专家。在担任《自然》杂志首席在线编辑期间，该杂志获得了在线媒体奖的最佳推特消息，并获得了科学领域的“肖蒂奖”。

Content introduction

He was a mathematician who invented game theory.

He was a computer scientist, the father of the electronic computer, and almost all computers today are based on the von Neumann architecture.

He was the physicist who developed the von Neumann hypothesis of consciousness, the originator of the idea that consciousness causes the collapse of the wave function.

He was a meteorologist, the father of modern numerical weather forecasting.

He was a biologist whose cellular automata theory laid the foundation for the discovery of DNA.

He was an important participant and leader of the Manhattan Project and made great contributions to the development of the atomic bomb.

...

Einstein revolutionized our understanding of time, space, and gravity, and Godel revolutionized the field of formal logic, but those who knew all three noted that von Neumann was by far the smartest man.

At the age of six, he could multiply eight digits in his head.

By the age of eight, he had read 45 volumes of the General History of the World and learned calculus.

At the age of 17, he published his first mathematical paper, which had a subversive impact.

At the age of 18, he studied chemistry as an undergraduate and postgraduate and mathematics as a doctoral student at three universities.

At the age of 22, he successfully passed the doctoral defense.

At the age of 30, along with Albert Einstein and others, he became one of the six professors of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

Von Neumann's "incredible brain", as well as his scientific contributions far beyond that of his contemporaries, directly formed a "von Neumann phenomenon" that is difficult to explain. His thoughts are so relevant to the challenges we face today that one wonders if he was a traveler in time, quietly incubating the ideas necessary to shape the future of our planet. Over time, his contributions to so many fields have become increasingly indispensable to our understanding of the world.

The author takes us on an amazing journey that explores how the perfect combination of genius and unique historical circumstances allowed one man to navigate astonishingly diverse fields and spark revolutions wherever he went. To fully understand the intellectual trends of the 21st century, we must understand how von Neumann's ideas have helped bring new ideas to life in business, technology, and more. Looking around, von Neumann's footprints can still be seen everywhere...

About the author

He has been a science correspondent at The Economist, an editor at Nature, a medical researcher at the Sanford-Burnham-Prebys Institute for Medical Discovery in San Diego, California, and holds a PhD in biophysics from Imperial College London. Ananjo's research covers everything from science policy to particle physics and is dedicated to communicating science. He is an award-winning social media expert. During his time as chief online editor of Nature, the journal won the Best Tweet at the Online Media Awards and won the "Schotty Award" in science.