## Metadata - Author: [[Benjamin Labatut]] - Full Title: The MANIAC, by Benjamin Labatut - Category: #articles - Summary: "The MANIAC" by Benjamín Labatut delves into the life and impact of Hungarian polymath John von Neumann, known for his contributions to various fields like game theory, computer programming, and AI. Labatut weaves a narrative through the perspectives of von Neumann's acquaintances, showcasing his genius and the transformative nature of his work. The book expands on themes of science, technology, and the evolution of human understanding, culminating in a reflection on the profound questions facing humanity. Through vivid storytelling, Labatut's work challenges readers to contemplate the implications of Von Neumann's groundbreaking ideas. - URL: https://tertulia.com/book/the-maniac-benjamin-labatut/9780593654477 ## Full Document   **From one of contemporary literature's most exciting new voices, a haunting story centered on the Hungarian polymath John von Neumann, tracing the impact of his singular legacy on the dreams and nightmares of the twentieth century and the nascent age of AI** Benjamín Labatut's *When We Cease to Understand the World* electrified a global readership. A Booker Prize and National Book Award finalist, and one of the *New York Times*' Ten Best Books of the Year, it explored the life and thought of a clutch of mathematicians and physicists who took science to strange and sometimes dangerous new realms. In *The MANIAC*, Labatut has created a tour de force on an even grander scale. A prodigy whose gifts terrified the people around him, John von Neumann transformed every field he touched, inventing game theory and the first programable computer, and pioneering AI, digital life, and cellular automata. Through a chorus of family members, friends, colleagues, and rivals, Labatut shows us the evolution of a mind unmatched and of a body of work that has unmoored the world in its wake. *The MANIAC* places von Neumann at the center of a literary triptych that begins with Paul Ehrenfest, an Austrian physicist and 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, an encounter embodying the central question of von Neumann's most ambitious unfinished project: the creation of a self-reproducing machine, an intelligence able to evolve beyond human understanding or control. A work of beauty and fabulous momentum, *The MANIAC* confronts us with the deepest questions we face as a species. #### Book Details * Publisher: Penguin Press * Publish Date: Oct 3rd, 2023 * Pages: 368 * Language: English * Dimensions: 9.00in - 6.00in - 0.91in - 1.31lb * EAN: 9780593654477