My review from the Literary Review， October 2021The Man From the Future:The Visionary Life of John Von NeumannAnanyo BhattacharyaAllen LaneJohn GribbinJohn von Neumann is widely regarded by his scientific peers as the greatest genius born in the twentieth century。 A combination of his intellect and his Hungarian origins （he started life， in 1903， as Neumann János Lajos） led colleagues to jokingly refer to him as a Martian， or a time traveller from the future。 He made seminal contributions to mat My review from the Literary Review， October 2021The Man From the Future:The Visionary Life of John Von NeumannAnanyo BhattacharyaAllen LaneJohn GribbinJohn von Neumann is widely regarded by his scientific peers as the greatest genius born in the twentieth century。 A combination of his intellect and his Hungarian origins （he started life， in 1903， as Neumann János Lajos） led colleagues to jokingly refer to him as a Martian， or a time traveller from the future。 He made seminal contributions to mathematics， quantum theory， the development of nuclear weapons， the birth of the modern computer， game theory， and evolutionary biology， while living through the turbulent decades involving two hot wars and one cold war。 Yet to the wide public he is not as well known as these achievements justify — certainly not as well known as Richard Feynman， although von Neumann was an equally colourful character。 Ananyo Bhattacharya attempts to rectify this， and succeeds on one level while just missing the target on another。 The success is in the science。 The author is a first-class science writer with an impeccable pedigree embracing stints at the Economist and Nature， and he does the best job I have seen of explaining the significance of von Neumann’s work across so many different fields。 He is so enthusiastic about the science， however， that he often goes far beyond von Neumann’s direct contribution to bring the story of — say — game theory up to date， so that the reader almost forgets that this is supposed to be a book about von Neumann。 So the near miss is the failure to bring his human subject to life。 We get the facts， and some familiar anecdotes， but no real feel for the man himself。 A more accurate subtitle would be “The Visionary Science of John Von Neumann”。 Here， one of those anecdotes will suffice to set von Neumann’s genius in context。 When he left school in 1921， his father wanted to steer him to a career where he could make a living， but he wanted to study mathematics， perceived by his father as an impractical waste of time。 So he did both， shuttling between the University of Berlin （and later the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich）， where he studied for a degree in chemistry， and the University of Budapest， where he worked for a PhD in mathematics。 He moved to the United States in 1930， and became known as John von Neumann at the age of 29。 He was initially on a short-term appointment at the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton， but happy to make his move permanent when Hitler came to power in Germany， If you are interested in the development in the twentieth century of science that impacts all our lives today， there is no better place to seek for information。 This is also a good place to get the details on von Neumann’s most famous mistake。 In 1932， the great man wrote a book summarising the state of knowledge about quantum mechanics， and among other things ruling out a whole class of explanations of quantum phenomena。 This ruling out was based on what by his standards was a trivial error， which was spotted by one junior German mathematical philosopher， Grete Hermann。 But the physics world was so in awe of von Neumann that for three decades everybody else accepted his word， without checking the arithmetic。 It was only when John Bell drew attention to the mistake that quantum physics took off in a new direction， leading directly to modern quantum computers。 But long before then， von Neumann himself had moved on。 His own interest in computers came through the need for such machines in calculating the design of nuclear weapons， and Bhattacharya does an excellent job of tracing this development， in which von Neumann led the way to the construction of the first American programmable computer。 In one of my few quibbles with the book， however， I can find no mention of the earlier British machine COLOSSUS， built at Bletchley Park for the codebreakers。 Alan Turing， though， does feature in his rightful place in the story。 Turing and von Neumann shared another common interest， literally the meaning of life。 Turing’s tragic death cut short his contribution to this field， but von Neumann introduced the idea of “self-reproducing automata”， which are now very near to becoming reality in the form of 3D printers that can print the parts to make other 3D printers。 This is tantalisingly close to one of my favourite science-fiction tropes， spacefaring probes that can travel to the planets of other stars where they build replicas of themselves to continue the exploration of the Galaxy。 Such spaceprobes are now known as “von Neumann machines”; starting with just one such machine， limited to travelling at much less than the speed of light， it would be possible to explore every planetary system in our Galaxy in a few million years。 Which raises the “Fermi paradox” — why haven’t we been visited？ One bleak possible answer is highlighted in Philip K。 Dick’s story， referenced by Bhattacharya， about automatic factories consuming the Earth’s resources to make things nobody needs， including more automatic factories。 Von Neumann died in February 1957， failing by a few months to live to see the launch of what may one day be remembered as the ancestor of those Galaxy-exploring self-reproducing automata — if Dick’s “autofacs” don’t consume everything first。 This book is a fine tribute to his genius and his contributions to science， but it contains far more science than life。 If that floats your boat， I strongly recommend it。John Gribbin is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Sussex and author of Computing With Quantum Cats （Black Swan） 。。。more