W. W. Norton & Company

The Man from the Future

Worldwide, Incl CN, Excl British Common and European Union

345050

340399

Ananyo Bhattacharya

The smartphones&nbsp;in our pockets and computers&nbsp;like&nbsp;brains. The vagaries of game theory and evolutionary biology.&nbsp;Nuclear weapons&nbsp;and self-replicating spacecrafts. All bear the fingerprints of one remarkable, yet largely&nbsp;overlooked,&nbsp;man: John von Neumann. Born in Budapest at the turn of the century,&nbsp;von Neumann&nbsp;is&nbsp;one of&nbsp;the most influential scientists to have ever lived.&nbsp;A child prodigy, he mastered calculus by the age of eight,&nbsp;and&nbsp;in high school&nbsp;made lasting contributions to mathematics.&nbsp;In&nbsp;Germany, where he helped lay the foundations of quantum mechanics,&nbsp;and later&nbsp;at Princeton, von Neumann&#8217;s&nbsp;colleagues believed he had the fastest brain on the planet&#8212;bar none.&nbsp;He&nbsp;was instrumental in the Manhattan Project&nbsp;and the design of the atom bomb; he&nbsp;helped formulate the bedrock of Cold War geopolitics and modern economic theory; he created the first ever programmable digital computer; he&nbsp;prophesized the potential of nanotechnology; and, from his deathbed,&nbsp;he&nbsp;expounded on the limits of brains and computers&#8212;and how they might be overcome. Taking us on an astonishing journey,&nbsp;Ananyo&nbsp;Bhattacharya explores how a combination of genius and unique historical circumstance allowed a single man to sweep through&nbsp;a stunningly&nbsp;diverse array of&nbsp;fields, sparking revolutions wherever he went.&nbsp;The Man from the Future&nbsp;is an insightful and thrilling&nbsp;intellectual biography of the visionary thinker who shaped our century.

A roundup of new releases, author tours, award news, and book features, sent twice a month.

Trade

Nonfiction

Biography & Memoir

Biography & Autobiography

Science & Technology

A Scientific American 2023 Staff Recommendation An electrifying biography of one of the most extraordinary scientists of the twentieth century and the world he made.