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Introduction:
Von Neumann was one of the greatest geniuses that ever lived. He was also a linguist. He contributed
hugely to quantum mechanics, computers and game theory. In Los Alamos, he was one of the ´Martians´
from Hungary. The joke was that they were only pretending to be normal.
Childhood and Family:
He came from a wealthy family in Hungary. His maternal grandfather was brilliant at multiplication. As a
child, he had ´no interest in sport´, (Bhattacharya, 2021). The home was intellectual, dynamic and
stimulating. Peter Lax (Bhattacharya, 2021) pointed out that he was ´addicted to thinking´. He quickly
outstripped the mathematics of the school and his father arranged at an early age for extra tuition at a local
university. He had massive mathematical intuition. It did not take long for him to stand apart, because of
his ´intellectual superiority´ and was not ´particularly popular´, (Bhattacharya, 2021). He had no interest in
physical education. In relation to other children, as a child himself, he took up ´the disquieting, detached
manner of an anthropologist´, with them (Bhattacharya, 2021). As he grew up, Wigner (Bhattacharya, 2021)
stated that he had the impression ´that only he was fully awake, that I was halfway in a dream´. Von
Neumann’s mother was extremely capable, tempestuous and successful as well. He emigrated to America to
avoid the development of Hitler’s movement in Germany. John was also novelty-seeking and sensation-
seeking, (Fitzgerald, 2008). One of the reasons John gave for considering marriage was when he said to his
future wife, ´you like to drink wine and so do I´, (Bhattacharya, 2021). He was very accident prone as a
driver. Indeed, after one crash he stated, which could be described as an autistic narrative, ´the trees on the
right were passing me in an orderly fashion at sixty miles an hour. Suddenly, one of them stepped in my
path. Boom!´, (Bhattacharya, 2021). In relation to non-verbal behaviour Ulam (Bhattacharya, 2021) noted
that his eyes were ´brown, large and full of expression´. Persons with autism are often described as having
piercing eyes. In addition, ´his head was impressively large. He had a sort of waddling gait´, (Bhattacharya,
2021). A large head is not uncommon in persons with autism and may have given him more brain,
´computing power´.
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Social:
He was ´ill at ease with people´ and was not ´an easy person to live with – in the sense he did not devote
enough time to ordinary family affairs´, (Bhattacharya, 2021). His daughter Marina stated that ´my father’s
first love was thinking a pursuit that occupied most of his waking hours, and like many geniuses, he tended
to be oblivious to the environmental needs of those around him´, (Bhattacharya, 2021). This is also a feature
of persons with autism. John was surprised when his wife left him. Indeed, it was not surprising but more
likely inevitable. Some people felt that John was ´too rational´, (Bhattacharya, 2021). His daughter, Marina
said that John had a ´lifelong desire to impose order and rationality on an inherently disorderly and irrational
world´, (Bhattacharya, 2021). He was famous for game theory which was ´cold, unconventional, shorn of
complexities of human emotion – but effective nevertheless´, (Bhattacharya, 2021). In one sense, game
theory was trying to describe social networks. John said to Jacob Bronowski that, ´real life consists of
bluffing, of little bits of deception, of asking yourself what is the other man going to think, I mean to do, and
that is what game theory is about in my view´, (Bhattacharya, 2021). One could ask of John’s game theory
was it to solve social problems because of his autism? It is interesting that John Nash, who also had autism
was interested in game theory, (Fitzgerald, 2002). It was surprising that for such a rational man, that he
returned to the Catholic faith. This puzzled many but showed a contradictory side of him. His former wife,
Klara dan von Neumann described him as a ´strange contradictory and controversial person, childish …
savage, brilliantly clever, yet with a very limited, almost primitive lack of ability to handle his emotions and
an enigma of nature that will have to remain unresolved´, (Bhattacharya, 2021). He was a most singular
man and ´shy of revealing too much of himself´, (Bhattacharya, 2021).
Conclusion:
Von Neumann was one of the so-called ´Martians´, that came from Hungary to work in America and later on
the atomic bomb. It is doubtful if the atomic bomb would have been created in the short time available,
except for their presence.
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References:
Bhattacharya A., (2021): The man from the future. London: Penguin.
Fitzgerald M., (2002): Did Nobel Prize Winner, John Nash, have Asperger’s syndrome and schizophrenia.
Irish Psychiatrist, 3, 3, 90 – 96.
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