The MANIAC
Von Neumann rendered as fiction, then handed over to AlphaGo and what came after.
Benjamin Labatut writes a semi-fictionalised life of John von Neumann through the voices of those around him, then turns in the final section to the machines that beat human champions at Go. The book is about intelligence that outruns the people who built it, and it is unsettling by design rather than by accident.
Recommended by 1 Person
Tyler Cowen
Benjamin Labutut, The Maniac. Chilean author, he has penned the story of von Neumann but in the latter part of the book switches to contemporary AI and AlphaGO, semi-fictionalized. Feels vital and not tired, mostly pretty good.
Source · October 2023
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