Ananyo Bhattacharya

Ananyo Bhattacharya is a science writer and author of The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann.

Thursday

7 Oct 2021
The forgotten Einstein: how John von Neumann shaped the modern world
The forgotten Einstein: how John von Neumann shaped the modern world
The forgotten Einstein: how John von Neumann shaped the modern world

More than anyone else, John von Neumann created the future. He was an unparalleled genius, one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century, and he helped invent the world as we now know it. He came up with a blueprint of the modern computer and sparked the beginnings of artificial intelligence. He worked on the atom bomb and led the team that produced the first computerised weather forecast. In the mid-1950s, he proposed the idea that the Earth was warming as a consequence of humans burning coal and oil, and warned that ‘extensive human intervention’ could wreak havoc with the world’s climate. Colleagues who knew both von Neumann and his colleague Albert Einstein said that von Neumann had by far the sharper mind, and yet it’s astonishing, and sad, how few people have heard of him.

The forgotten Einstein: how John von Neumann shaped the modern world
Useful links
  • Advertise with us
  • Sponsor an event
  • Submit a story
More from The Spectator
  • Spectator Australia
  • Apollo Magazine
  • The Spectator Shop
About us
  • About The Spectator
  • Contact & FAQs
  • Privacy & cookies
  • Terms and conditions
  • Jobs and vacancies
  • Site map
Subscribe
  • Subscribe today
  • Sign up to our emails
  • The Spectator Club