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The Man from the Future

The Visionary Life of John von Neumann

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The Man from the Future

By: Ananyo Bhattacharya
Narrated by: Nicholas Camm
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

An exhilarating new biography of John von Neumann: the lost genius who invented our world

The smartphones in our pockets and computers like brains. The vagaries of game theory and evolutionary biology. Self-replicating moon bases and nuclear weapons. All bear the fingerprints of one remarkable man: John von Neumann.

Born in Budapest at the turn of the century, von Neumann is one of the most influential scientists to have ever lived. His colleagues believed he had the fastest brain on the planet - bar none. He was instrumental in the Manhattan Project and helped formulate the bedrock of Cold War geopolitics and modern economic theory. He created the first ever programmable digital computer. He prophesied the potential of nanotechnology and, from his deathbed, expounded on the limits of brains and computers - and how they might be overcome.

Taking us on an astonishing journey, Ananyo Bhattacharya explores how a combination of genius and unique historical circumstance allowed a single man to sweep through so many different fields of science, sparking revolutions wherever he went.

Insightful and illuminating, The Man from the Future is a thrilling intellectual biography of the visionary thinker who shaped our century.

'A sparkling book, with an intoxicating mix of pen-portraits and grand historical narrative. Above all it fizzes with a dizzying mix of deliciously vital ideas. . . A staggering achievement' Tim Harford

© Ananyo Bhattacharya 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

 Computer Science History History & Philosophy Mathematics Physics Professionals & Academics Science Science & Technology Technology Inspiring Human Brain

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Critic reviews

John von Neumann was one of the deepest and broadest thinkers of the 20th century - but also a delight to encounter. According to one admirer, listening to him was "mental champagne". Now we have a biography of the man about which you can say the same. This is a sparkling book, with an intoxicating mix of pen-portraits and grand historical narrative. Above all it fizzes with a dizzying mix of deliciously vital ideas. The Man From The Future is a staggering achievement (Tim Harford, author of How to Make the World Add Up)
An engaging and fascinating book that blends science and history. I loved it (Paul Davies, author of The Demon in the Machine)
An ambitious account of a complex thinker who lived through extraordinary times. Ananyo Bhattacharya's biography of von Neumann is admirably thorough and accessible (Angela Saini, author of Inferior)
John von Neumann was the genius's genius, the man who shone in whatever topic in mathematics or physics he turned his mind towards. Despite his central contributions to the theory of computation, economics, logic, complexity, and quantum physics, somehow he never became a household name to rival Einstein and Feynman. Ananyo Bhattacharya's biography deserves to change that. Consistently clear and careful without sacrificing elegance or accessibility, it does full justice to this legendary figure of twentieth century science. Johnny did indeed imagine the first draft of the future, and we are now living it (Philip Ball, author of Beyond Weird)
More than just a biography, The Man from the Future elucidates the breath-taking scientific progress in the mid-20th century, skilfully woven together in the story of one man, John von Neumann (Sabine Hossenfelder, author of Lost in Math)
A gripping tale of the most significant mathematical, scientific and geopolitical events of the early 20th century. Bhattacharya's storytelling seamlessly weaves together the science, the vibrant social and historical context, and the private idiosyncrasies of John von Neumann and the fascinating geniuses around him, without mythologising. As a scientist, you come across von Neumann's name frequently - but I hadn't appreciated quite how fundamental an influence he'd had on so many fields until I read this book (Andrew Steele, author of Ageless)
Highly enjoyable. Von Neumann's genius lay in synthesising the theoretical knowledge of the time: from quantum and nuclear physics to game theory and computing. Ananyo Bhattacharya's great insight, which he reveals with engaging clarity, is that von Neumann was also creating a blueprint for how technology would change our world over the next sixty years (David Sumpter, author of The Ten Equations that Rule the World)
All stars
Most relevant
Not heard much of JvN before getting stuck into this book so understandably (for those who know him) blown away by the sheer breadth of vision and intellect of the man. His achievements and contributions are nicely summarised by Bhattacharta in a way that someone not too familiar with maths and physics can at least grasp the significance of what’s going on. Recommended for anyone remotely interested in science and the origins of modern technology.

Blown away by genius

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As other reviewers note, this isn’t actually a biography. It’s an introduction to Von Neumann’s scientific work, along with many digressions about its context and influence.

As an introduction to Von Neumann’s work, the book is very good! I would have liked more detail about the IAS machine that Von Neumann built – it was a very interesting computer with a unique architecture, but the author doesn’t go into any detail about it. But the explanations of Von Neumann’s work in quantum theory, nuclear physics, game theory and cellular automata are all nicely explained.

It must be said that the book is very disgressive, and the author lets his interests show quite palpably. I would have preferred the sections about Von Neumann’s influence to be curtailed, and instead to have more of a biographical narrative about the man.

One point where I do disagree with the author is about intelligence. The notion that there is such a person as “the most intelligent man alive” is dangerous post-Romantic rubbish. Luckily this rhetoric of genius drops off after the first couple of Chapters. Ironically, one thing the biography does extremely well is to show just how collaborative science is, and how little even a great scientist like Von Neumann actually contributes of their own accord.

Very interesting, but infocused

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Absolutely loved this book. Really brought Von Neumann to life and made clear his phenomenal impact across almost all technological breakthroughs in the past century. The story was brought to life through the sidebar summaries of the other great minds he worked with over this critical period in history.

A standout biography of a remarkable man!

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I decided to listen to this audiobook after reading “Turing’s Cathedral” by George Dyson, and I was not disappointed. The book is a great listen for those interested in the life of von Neumann.

Great biography of JVN

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This was really worth reading, though not for the reasons I expected. There isn't as much biographical information on Von Neumann as you would think and this material is the least interesting part of the book. What fascinated me was the history of maths and computing - it goes into a decent amount of depth and I learned a great deal. There is also a lot on the characters adjacent to von Neumann such as John Nash and Stephen Wolfram which was great and led to lots of reading on Wikipedia

nice history of mathematics and computing

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