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4.28 AVERAGE
4.28 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Really enjoyed this book, although it’s not necessarily my cup of tea (historical fiction). I learned a lot. It ended kind of abruptly though. Made me want to watch Oppenheimer again.
Even after reading American Prometheus and watching both Oppenheimer and The Day After Trinity, there was much to be learned from this book. Written in a compelling style, the book brings alive a fascinating group of characters.
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
(review pending) Wavering between 3 or 4 stars as if my rating held some importance in the world. I am now picturing countless folks refusing to eat until they hear my pronouncement upon this innocent book... Then again, given the subject, maybe I should just let ChatGPT write the review...
-----------------------------
After a long talk with ChatGPT in my head that went something like this ("It would be nice if AI could prevent school shootings, broker world peace, and end poverty/hunger/slavery/exploitation."), I decided that this was a 3 star read for me. This took a lot of soul searching and was not an easy choice to make (mainly, because I had yet again eaten too many sweets for the day and was in the midst of a sugar crash). Labatut brings in a wide variety of historical figures and their voices to give us a kind of indirect collage of John von Neumann. For the most part, other than the Richard Feynman sections and a couple of others, the voices are sort of drab and repetitive. Essentially, you get the reinforced notion that von Neumann was ridiculously brilliant in an unbelievable number of fields, obsessed with logic, and absolute shit about being a person (the parts that include relating to other individuals and consideration of society as a whole).
I'm not exactly sure how the fictional frame makes this particular story better. Were it written as straight non-fiction, in the right hands, it might have been stronger. If anything, it felt more like a series of postcards capturing the hubris and portion of history that has led from huge discoveries to humanities ability to annihilate itself through technology (indeed, the last few sections extend into the present and how AI has bested humans at playing board games---it is actually quite an amazing account of both human chess and Go masters being defeated but my pitching it in such a dismissive tone makes me feel we've got at least 3 more years before our electronics enslave us). Labatut does do a fabulous job of covering a lot of scientific and mathematic ground and concepts. His ability to illustrate connections, provide context, and make the theory both relevant and understandable is seriously impressive.
But in the end: If the bomb don't get us, AI will.
-----------------------------------
"…he could not shake the feeling that a fundamental line had been crossed, that a demon, or perhaps a genie, had incubated in the soul of physics, one that neither his nor any succeeding generation would be able to put back in the lamp. If one were to believe the novel rules governing the inner realm of the atom, suddenly the entire world was no longer solid and real as it once was."
-----------------------------
After a long talk with ChatGPT in my head that went something like this ("It would be nice if AI could prevent school shootings, broker world peace, and end poverty/hunger/slavery/exploitation."), I decided that this was a 3 star read for me. This took a lot of soul searching and was not an easy choice to make (mainly, because I had yet again eaten too many sweets for the day and was in the midst of a sugar crash). Labatut brings in a wide variety of historical figures and their voices to give us a kind of indirect collage of John von Neumann. For the most part, other than the Richard Feynman sections and a couple of others, the voices are sort of drab and repetitive. Essentially, you get the reinforced notion that von Neumann was ridiculously brilliant in an unbelievable number of fields, obsessed with logic, and absolute shit about being a person (the parts that include relating to other individuals and consideration of society as a whole).
I'm not exactly sure how the fictional frame makes this particular story better. Were it written as straight non-fiction, in the right hands, it might have been stronger. If anything, it felt more like a series of postcards capturing the hubris and portion of history that has led from huge discoveries to humanities ability to annihilate itself through technology (indeed, the last few sections extend into the present and how AI has bested humans at playing board games---it is actually quite an amazing account of both human chess and Go masters being defeated but my pitching it in such a dismissive tone makes me feel we've got at least 3 more years before our electronics enslave us). Labatut does do a fabulous job of covering a lot of scientific and mathematic ground and concepts. His ability to illustrate connections, provide context, and make the theory both relevant and understandable is seriously impressive.
But in the end: If the bomb don't get us, AI will.
-----------------------------------
"…he could not shake the feeling that a fundamental line had been crossed, that a demon, or perhaps a genie, had incubated in the soul of physics, one that neither his nor any succeeding generation would be able to put back in the lamp. If one were to believe the novel rules governing the inner realm of the atom, suddenly the entire world was no longer solid and real as it once was."
medium-paced
challenging
informative
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Probably the only book I actually read and finished this year. Needed something like this. It was like crack to me
Absolutely brilliant. A biography of von Neumann, but written like a novel. It’s narrated by family, friends and the mathematicians and physicists he worked with. In those narratives, the author focuses on von Neumann’s influence on or interactions with those individuals, so the book is made up of people recalling their times with him, which creates the biography. The chapters “ narrated” by Feynman really highlighted how the author used different styles with the various narratives.
dark
informative
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes