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4.28 AVERAGE
4.28 AVERAGE
Je vážně zajímavý, jak mě může naprosto pohltit knížka, kvůli který ztratím víru v budoucnost lidstva
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
An amazing achievement.
Great imagination combined with historical fact and human understanding.
Great imagination combined with historical fact and human understanding.
dark
informative
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Engrossing exploration of the (occasionally flawed) intellect of various mathematicians and computer scientists, plus an outline of the meandering stepping stones that led us to(wards) artificial intelligence. Culminates with Deep Blue, which is a wild story (particularly at the time), and then pretty quickly and completely dunks on that story with the AlphaGo vs. Lee Sedol story. Goose-bump inducing at the end for me. Immediately on the Favorites list.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
informative
fast-paced
85th book of 2023.
4.5. Right now, I don't think it's quite as good as Labatut's When We Cease to Understand the World that just blew me away. I still think about that novel's opening "Prussian Blue" and his pure skill in executing that chapter. In fact, at work this week I tried to explain it to someone I work with, S., and failed. S. is an incredible listener; he's the quiet sort. He's training as an art teacher. He's taller than me (and I'm tall), wears round tortoise-shell glasses and pastel shirts. I've discovered you could, probably, talk for an infinite amount of time and he would listen. Even when you pause to gather your thoughts, he stands patiently and waits. When it's certainly his time to speak, he proceeds as if playing chess (which he plays, and is topical, in part, to this novel), with great caution. Sometimes whole seconds will pass in the middle of a sentence as he weighs up his next word choice. I told him I was reading Labatut's newest, his English language debut, which is out in September and told him to read it when he came out. He said he would (and I believe him, for I've mentioned things in passing before and he's told me, on seeing him later in the same week, that he read/watched/ate whatever I had recommended. A rare breed).
At the heart of The MANIAC is the Manhattan Project. This book almost felt like an accidental precursor to Nolan's upcoming Oppenheimer. But, instead, focussing on one of the greatest minds to walk the planet: Jon Von Neumann. His programming machine was named Mathematical Analyser, Numerical Integrator and Computer, or, as the full-caps title alludes to, MANIAC for short. Labatut, as he did with his last novel, explores the often married ideas of genius and madness. Neumann was the man who calculated the exact distance to explode the bomb above Hiroshima (rather than at ground level) to cause the maximum amount of destruction. For the scientists, it seemed, the matter of lives meant nothing: the science was too exciting; they were pioneering their field and the results, mass destruction and death, appeared almost inconsequential. It is the largest part of the three in the book, and is constructed with many short chapters, all from a different perspective drawing a wide and sweeping image of Neumann's intellect and cold genius.
I'm reviewing this out of order, but part one is about Paul Ehrenfest. As Labatut tells us in the first sentence: he kills his additional needs son and then himself. This is the result of the Second World War's use and advancement in science and physics as a way of creating mass destruction. Part three accelerates to the 21st century and shows a number of geniuses who created AI systems for playing chess and Go. Demis Hassabis spearheads these creations after seeing the late work of Neumann. So Labatut jumps to here to see how science has progressed even further, away from weaponry, perhaps, but just as terrifyingly, in some ways, to artificial intelligence. The ultimate question in this part is the same old: can it ever replace or outdo human thought? I thought after leaving the madness of Neumann's world and the atomic bombs, reading about a man playing Go against a machine would be dull, but I suppose Labatut is incapable of writing anything in a boring matter. Probably one of my favourite writers working today. This is his field: madness, genius and destruction. A haunting, compulsive book about what human beings do for science.
Cannot express enough thanks to Pushkin Press for sending me this advance copy for review.
4.5. Right now, I don't think it's quite as good as Labatut's When We Cease to Understand the World that just blew me away. I still think about that novel's opening "Prussian Blue" and his pure skill in executing that chapter. In fact, at work this week I tried to explain it to someone I work with, S., and failed. S. is an incredible listener; he's the quiet sort. He's training as an art teacher. He's taller than me (and I'm tall), wears round tortoise-shell glasses and pastel shirts. I've discovered you could, probably, talk for an infinite amount of time and he would listen. Even when you pause to gather your thoughts, he stands patiently and waits. When it's certainly his time to speak, he proceeds as if playing chess (which he plays, and is topical, in part, to this novel), with great caution. Sometimes whole seconds will pass in the middle of a sentence as he weighs up his next word choice. I told him I was reading Labatut's newest, his English language debut, which is out in September and told him to read it when he came out. He said he would (and I believe him, for I've mentioned things in passing before and he's told me, on seeing him later in the same week, that he read/watched/ate whatever I had recommended. A rare breed).
At the heart of The MANIAC is the Manhattan Project. This book almost felt like an accidental precursor to Nolan's upcoming Oppenheimer. But, instead, focussing on one of the greatest minds to walk the planet: Jon Von Neumann. His programming machine was named Mathematical Analyser, Numerical Integrator and Computer, or, as the full-caps title alludes to, MANIAC for short. Labatut, as he did with his last novel, explores the often married ideas of genius and madness. Neumann was the man who calculated the exact distance to explode the bomb above Hiroshima (rather than at ground level) to cause the maximum amount of destruction. For the scientists, it seemed, the matter of lives meant nothing: the science was too exciting; they were pioneering their field and the results, mass destruction and death, appeared almost inconsequential. It is the largest part of the three in the book, and is constructed with many short chapters, all from a different perspective drawing a wide and sweeping image of Neumann's intellect and cold genius.
I'm reviewing this out of order, but part one is about Paul Ehrenfest. As Labatut tells us in the first sentence: he kills his additional needs son and then himself. This is the result of the Second World War's use and advancement in science and physics as a way of creating mass destruction. Part three accelerates to the 21st century and shows a number of geniuses who created AI systems for playing chess and Go. Demis Hassabis spearheads these creations after seeing the late work of Neumann. So Labatut jumps to here to see how science has progressed even further, away from weaponry, perhaps, but just as terrifyingly, in some ways, to artificial intelligence. The ultimate question in this part is the same old: can it ever replace or outdo human thought? I thought after leaving the madness of Neumann's world and the atomic bombs, reading about a man playing Go against a machine would be dull, but I suppose Labatut is incapable of writing anything in a boring matter. Probably one of my favourite writers working today. This is his field: madness, genius and destruction. A haunting, compulsive book about what human beings do for science.
Cannot express enough thanks to Pushkin Press for sending me this advance copy for review.