Book Review: The Man From the Future by Ananyo Bhattacharya

Was the polymath John von Neumann an alien? Did he travel back in time to help us invent the future? Or was he just a complex man with a knack for building networks of interesting people?

Ananyo Bhattacharya's well-researched book presents a tangled view of the man and his legend. It leaps back and forth between von Neumann's various projects, which can make it slightly confusing to follow. Although it does its best to simplify the maths and science to a lay audience, there's no getting away from the ridiculously complex concepts he laid the framework for.

Because this is a biography as much about ideas as it is about a man, there's a fair bit of science history to get through. The book does have a tendency to go on long diversions about how the ideas percolated throughout the scientific community - which sometimes gives the impression that you're reading the biography of several people. One chapter feels like von Neumann is a background character.

Nevertheless, I learned a lot about von Neumann and the way he restlessly moved from project to project. The almost casual way he kickstarted the Open Source movement, his ability to work with (almost) anyone, and his complex relationship with faith. Sadly, it is slightly hagiographic. For example, his well documented sexism is simply omitted. I think that's because this book wants to be about the purity of ideas rather than the complexity of people.

The book contained two main themes which moved me. The first is the undercurrent of privilege - almost everyone in the book comes from an environment where their intellectual curiosity was well supported.

The second is the way that we never know how or if undirected research will be useful. As von Neumann said about early computers:

The projected device, or rather the species of devices of which it is to be the first representative, is so radically new that many of its uses will become clear only after it has been put into operation … These uses which are not, or not easily, predictable now, are likely to be the most important ones. Indeed they are by definition those which we do not recognise at present because they are farthest removed from what is now feasible.

How do we get people to understand that it is imperative to invest in potential? Both people and ideas deserve to be developed to allow them to reach their full capacity.

Many thanks to Amanda Brock for the kind gift.