John von Neumann’s Extraordinary Life
John von Neumann was
perhaps one of the most fertile minds of the twentieth century who had
widespread influence on contemporary and future developments of a myriad of scientific
and mathematical disciplines as well as had significant involvement in, and
impact upon, the course of human events during his lifetime and beyond. His academic accomplishments and
contributions range from mathematics, quantum mechanics, ballistics,
nuclear physics, hydrodynamics,
combustion phenomenology, computer design, economics, meteorology and
physiology. He contributed significantly
to the development of the electronic computer, the atomic bomb, the
thermonuclear bomb and America’s
ballistic missiles. He played a
significant role in the defeat of the Axis Powers during World War II and the
containment of Communism during the early Cold War years. All this is perhaps
more remarkable given that his early principal academic focus had been on
rather abstract aspects of theoretical mathematics. He was regarded by most of his
contemporaries, including some of the greatest minds of his day, as one of the
brightest individuals they had ever met and as a true genius. His greatest
strength was as a problem solver. Time
and time again he demonstrated the ability to quickly identify new ways of looking
at a problem even in disciplines and with respect to matters he just became
acquainted. Often while listening to
lectures and presentations by experts in their fields he was able to discern
connections and to identify, explain and map out avenues of advance to proceed
upon which were wholly unknown and unappreciated such experts. At a personal level, despite his obvious
intellect, in general, he tried to put others whom he dealt with at ease and
generally was regarded as friendly and not contentious. He was affectionately known by all as “Johnny”. His death at age 53 led many to speculate how
many further advances of human knowledge he may have helped contribute to if he
had lived as long as some of his contemporaries.
Early Life
John von Neumann was born Neumann Janos in Budapest, Hungary
on December 28, 1903. The
circumstances of his early life and experiences greatly shaped his lifelong
perspectives and the course of his later life.
The social and economic environment of Budapest
in the late Nineteenth Century presented opportunities to the Neumann family
which were not present elsewhere in Europe at the
time. Hungary,
having obtained a measure of autonomy within the Austro-Hungarian Empire as a
result of the formation of the Dual Monarchy following the defeat of Austria
by Prussia in
the Seven Weeks War in 1866, was aggressively promoting economic expansion and
cultural development. Unconstrained by a
deeply entrenched political order or democracy for that matter, the Magyar
aristocracy that had control formulated a policy that promoted aggressive
economic development and meritocratic and plutocratic
policies. In 1868, the few
discriminatory laws which were directed against the Jews were repealed. Johnny’s Father, Miksa
(known as “Max” or “Maximillian”) Neumann was born in
Pecs, Hungary
in 1870. In time, Max found such
policies attractive which led him to settle in Budapest
in the late 1880’s. Max studied law and
worked for a bank both as an attorney and a banker. He married Margit (known as “Margaret”) Kann,
the daughter of a businessman who sold agricultural equipment on a large scale.
As a valued financial adviser to Hungarian Minister Kalman
Szell, Max was awarded in 1913 a title of hereditary
nobility which allowed him and his descendents the use of the prefix “von” in
their last name. Johnny was born into a
prospering upper middle class existence where knowledge and learning were
prized. His early education was from his
parents and from tutors. In 1914, Johnny
entered the Lutheran Gymnasium, one of the elite schools of Budapest,
where he excelled, particularly in mathematics, and graduated first in his
class in 1921. It was decided that he
study chemical engineering in Berlin University in a 2 year non-degree program
and then take the second year entrance exam for a four year program at Eidgennossiensche Technische Hochschule (“ETH”) in Zurich, Switzerland, to get a
practical education. Johnny wanted to
study mathematics so he planned to enroll at Budapest
University for an advanced doctoral
degree in mathematics at the same time.
His Ph.D. thesis was to attempt axiomatization
of Georg Cantor’s set theory. He did the course work for both degrees at
the same time and received both degrees in 1926.
ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/50th/December.html
Ascendant Genius
Thereafter, through a grant from
the Rockefeller Foundation, he went to Goettingen University
in Germany to
do further advanced work in mathematics with David Hilbert. At Goettingen, in 1925 Werner Heisenberg had just devised
quantum mechanics. In 1926, Erwin
Schroedinger appeared at Goettingen
to challenge Heisenberg’s formulation.
At Professor Hilbert’s request Johnny prepared a paper explaining
quantum mechanics which clearly explained the subject matter even using
Hilbert’s own concept of Hilbert
Space. Johnny was able to formulate
mathematical solutions to resolve apparent conflicts in the theory of quantum
mechanics to show that the two different conceptions were in fact similar later
to be reported in Johnny’s “Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics”
published in 1932. He went on to produce
significant findings in related topics involving emission and absorption
spectral theory. By 1927, Johnny was a
greater expert in the mathematics of Hilbert Space than its founder, Hilbert. In the autumn of 1927, Johnny accepted the post
of privatdocent in mathematics at the University
of Berlin, the youngest ever so
appointed. He made a name for himself as
a prolific source of ground breaking mathematical treatises and papers. In 1929, he accepted a post at the University
of Hamburg.
Oswald
Veblan, as part of an effort to recruit leading
academics to Princeton University,
invited Johnny to a lectureship in mathematical physics for the spring term of
1930. On January 28, 1933,
he was given a lifetime professorship at the newly created Institute of Advanced Studies along with Einstein,
Veblen and James
Alexander. Two days later, Hitler
became chancellor of Germany. Later in 1933, Johnny applied for U.S.
citizenship. In mathematics, Johnny
concentrated on continuous geometries and in the theory of the class of
operators in Hilbert Space. He became
interested in turbulence in hydrodynamics and recognized the limitations of
contemporary calculating machines to solve the necessary equations. Johnny began to speculate upon the form of
computational machines which would be required and their attributes. He also became interested in the physiology
of the brain and the likelihood that biological analogs would prove useful in
computer development. Anticipating the
approach of war, Johnny began working part time with the Ballistics Research
Laboratory of Aberdeen Proving Ground in the calculation of artillery ballistics.
www.lanl.gov/history/atomicbomb/computers.shtml
Visions Realized
Johnny worked at Los
Alamos on the development of the Atom Bomb. He participated in all aspects of its
development including its conceptual design, the derivation of the theoretical
mathematics and physics to determine the feasibility of proposed designs and
the calculation of the necessary series of equations. He determined that the contemporary
mechanical calculating machines were inadequate to the task, so he explored all
other alternatives. He tested the new
electromechanical Harvard-IBM
Mark I Computer and the Bell Labs
Computer but found their relay based design, with their inherent minimum
switching time governed by the inertia of the relay contacts, still too slow
for the immense amount of calculations required. In August 1944, Johnny examined the first
electronic computer, Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer ( “ENIAC”), that was under
development at the Moore
School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania under a
contract with the Ballistics Research Laboratory. ENIAC’s logic circuits employed vacuum tubes,
rather than relays, so it was capable of calculation speeds several hundred
times faster than the electromechanical computers. Johnny recognized that ENIAC may have the
potential of fulfilling the calculation requirements of the Manhattan
Project. From the outset, ENIAC had been
developed by J. Presper Eckert and John
Mauchly.
Johnny became a consultant to the ENIAC project, rapidly identifying
design and logic changes to improve performance and utility. Johnny also participated in the formulation
and design of a follow on computer, Electronic Discrete Variable Computer (“EDVAC”), which was
undergoing conceptual design to address design limitations of ENIAC. As one of the world’s leading mathematical
logicians, Johnny was able to greatly improve the logic design of the
computer. However, ENIAC did not become
available before the war’s end.
In 1946, Johnny continued to work
on the development of computers. That
year Eckert and Mauchly left the Moore
School to pursue the development of
computers in the private sector. They
had felt slighted by the attention Johnny had received with respect to computer
development. This, as in other fields of
endeavor, was the result of Johnny’s fertile mind and his ability to improve
and carry forward ideas several steps ahead rather than a malevolent
intent. Johnny had restructured ENIAC to
incorporate memory stored programs rather than require external restructuring
to alter programming and greatly improved input-output to greatly improve
overall performance. Johnny went on to
develop a computer at the IAS using all of his design
improvements and the so-called “von Neumann Architecture”. This architecture involved a single storage
structure to hold instructions and data.
It envisioned a computer system as consisting of four primary
components, a central arithmetic unit to process mathematical and logical
functions, a central control unit to coordinate the components and to control
proper sequencing of operations, a memory unit in which program instructions
and data were stored and accessed and input and output units by which inputs
and commands may given and results displayed.
Johnny was very open in sharing his computer design concepts and
architecture which led to a wide proliferation of this design concept among
other design teams computers such as MANIAC, JOHNNIAC,
AVIDIAC, ORDVAC, ORACLE and
the IBM
701, from modern computers have derived.
The IAS Computer began operating in 1952.
In August 1955, Johnny was
diagnosed with cancer which was likely caused by his exposure to radioactive
fallout from witnessing the Baker Test at Bikini Atoll in 1946. He continued to work as long as his health
permitted. He passed away on February 8, 1957.
www.enseignement.polytec.../.../
tableau.html
References
1. John von
Neumann by Norman Macrae, Pantheon Books 1992.
2. John von Neumann and Norbert
Weiner, From Mathematics to the Technologies of Life and Death by Steve J. Heims, The MIT Press 1980.
3. John von Neumann and Modern
Economics edited by Sukhamoy Chakravarty,
Mohammed Dore and Richard Goodwin, Oxford University
Press 1989.
4. John von Neumann and the von
Neumann Architecture for Computers (1945) by Barney J. Cabrera, http://w3.salemstate.edu/~tevans/VonNeuma.htm
- Alexander
Hamilton Slanover
- Stony
Brook University
- CSE
301 - History of Computing
- Spring
2007