The MANIAC, by Benjamín Labatut (2023)

Incredibly entertaining book with hauntingly beautiful writing. The largest and most addictive part tells the story of John von Neumann through the fictionalised accounts of those closest to him.

The manic speed at which it moves and the feverish eulogising of intelligences both human and artificial blur into a mixture of fear and excitement at the wonders and dangers of scientific progress. It reminded me a little of The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore, which had a similar “along for the ride” feel to it.

It’s split into three parts: The Discovery of the Irrational, which focuses on Paul Ehrenfest; The Mad Dreams of Reason, which contains accounts of John von Neumann; and finally The Delusions of Artifical Intelligence, which tells the story of DeepMind’s AlphaGo and it’s conquest of complex games.

Highlights

The Discovery of the Irrational

016

"I know that you see it as well as I do, but most of the time I feel alone, as if I were the only human being bearing witness to how far we have fallen. We lie on our knees, praying to the wrong god, a childish deity who hides at the center of a corrupted world that he can neither govern nor understand. Or is it that we have made him ourselves, in our own fetid image, but then forgotten we have done so, as young boys birth the monsters and demons who haunt their dreams, without ever realizing that they have only themselves to blame?"

016

His memories, his past, his family and friends, all those ties and treasured reveries now belonged to some other person, a man whom he would sometimes catch a glimpse of in the mirror—pint sized, bespectacled, and heavyset, with spiky hair cut short and a thick mustache over buck-teeth that looked as if they were shying away from each other—and whom he failed to recognize.

The Mad Dreams of Reason

Eugene Wigner

047

There are two kinds of people in this world: Jancsi von Neumann and the rest of us.

049

He told me that he had known, right there and then, that von Neumann would change the world, even if he could not imagine how. I asked him what had led him to believe something so outlandish, and he said that no sooner had he laid eyes on my friend's enormous head than he had felt in the presence of something completely Other.

054

I have often wondered about the consciousness of animals, how it must be more shadowy than ours, more dreamlike and fleeting, small thoughts like half-burned candles, their outlines never fully formed. And perhaps that is also the case for many of us who must strain to think with clarity.

Theodore von Kármán

076

There are as many gods as there are people who believe in them, and the so-called human sciences are no better than philosophy, just mindless games played with meaningless words. Mathematics is different. It has always been held up as a torch, the true light of reason, blinding and unquestionable.

Out of respect for the author's work, this content is truncated. To view it, please enter the code below.