The MANIAC
(Sprache: Englisch)
"A story centered around one of the great geniuses of the modern age, the Hungarian polymath John von Neumann, tracing the uncanny circuit of his mind deep into our own time's most haunting dilemmas"--
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"A story centered around one of the great geniuses of the modern age, the Hungarian polymath John von Neumann, tracing the uncanny circuit of his mind deep into our own time's most haunting dilemmas"--
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On the morning of the twenty-fifth of September 1933, the Austrian physicist Paul Ehrenfest walked into Professor Jan Waterink's Pedagogical Institute for Afflicted Children in Amsterdam, shot his fifteen-year-old son, Vassily, in the head, then turned the gun on himself.Paul died instantly, while Vassily, who suffered from Down syndrome, was in agony for hours before being pronounced dead by the same doctors who had cared for him since his arrival at the institute, in January of that same year. He had come to Amsterdam because his father had decided that the clinic where the boy had spent the better part of a decade, located in Jena, in the heartland of Germany, was no longer safe for him with the Nazis in power. Vassily-or rather Wassik, as almost everyone called him-had to endure severe mental and physical disabilities during his short life; Albert Einstein, who loved the boy's father as if they were brothers and was a regular houseguest at the Ehrenfests' home in Leiden, nicknamed Wassik "patient little crawlikins," for he had such trouble getting around, and would sometimes feel so much pain in his knees that he could not stand. And yet, even then, the child did not lose his seemingly boundless enthusiasm, dragging himself along the carpet, with his useless legs trailing behind, to meet his favorite "uncle" at the door. Wassik spent most of his life institutionalized, but he was a cheerful child nonetheless, often sending postcards to his parents in Leiden featuring quaint German landscapes, or letters with accounts of his daily life, written in his unsure hand, telling them what new things he had learned, how his best friend had fallen ill, how hard he was trying to be a good boy, just as they had taught him, and how in love he was with not one but two girls in his class, as well as his teacher, Mrs. Gottlieb, who was the most caring and wonderful person he had ever met, a thought that would bring tears to his father's eyes, as Paul Ehrenfest was, first
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and foremost, a teacher.
Paul had suffered from extreme melancholy and bouts of crippling depression all his life. Like his son, he had been a weak boy, often ill. When he was not nursing nosebleeds, coughing due to his asthma, or dizzy and wheezing from lack of breath after escaping the bullies who teased and taunted him at school-Pig's ear, donkey's ear, give 'em to the Jew that's here!-he would feign some other ailment, a fever perhaps, a cold, or an unbearable stomachache, just to stay at home in his mother's arms, hidden from the outside, safely wrapped in her embrace, as if deep down, in some way, little Paul, the youngest of five brothers, could foretell that she would die when he was ten, and all his prior suffering was nothing but a premonition, an anticipation of loss that he dare not speak of, to himself or to others, afraid that if he said it out loud, found the courage to put it into words, her death would somehow hasten forward to meet him; so he remained silent, fearful, and sad, shouldering a weight that no child should bear, a dark foreknowledge that haunted him past her death, past his father's demise six years after hers, and that would follow behind him like the toll of a bell up to the day of his undoing, by his own hand, at fifty-three years of age.
However much he was at odds with himself and the world, Paul was the most gifted member of his household and the best student of any class he ever took part in. He was well liked by his friends, highly esteemed by his classmates, and appreciated by his teachers, but nothing could convince him of his self-worth. Yet he was by no means an introvert; on the contrary, he would pour out everything he took in, delighting those around him with fabulous displays of knowledge and his uncanny ability to translate the most complicated ideas into images and metaphors that anyone could understand, threading together concepts from disparate fields that he drew from the ever-growing n
Paul had suffered from extreme melancholy and bouts of crippling depression all his life. Like his son, he had been a weak boy, often ill. When he was not nursing nosebleeds, coughing due to his asthma, or dizzy and wheezing from lack of breath after escaping the bullies who teased and taunted him at school-Pig's ear, donkey's ear, give 'em to the Jew that's here!-he would feign some other ailment, a fever perhaps, a cold, or an unbearable stomachache, just to stay at home in his mother's arms, hidden from the outside, safely wrapped in her embrace, as if deep down, in some way, little Paul, the youngest of five brothers, could foretell that she would die when he was ten, and all his prior suffering was nothing but a premonition, an anticipation of loss that he dare not speak of, to himself or to others, afraid that if he said it out loud, found the courage to put it into words, her death would somehow hasten forward to meet him; so he remained silent, fearful, and sad, shouldering a weight that no child should bear, a dark foreknowledge that haunted him past her death, past his father's demise six years after hers, and that would follow behind him like the toll of a bell up to the day of his undoing, by his own hand, at fifty-three years of age.
However much he was at odds with himself and the world, Paul was the most gifted member of his household and the best student of any class he ever took part in. He was well liked by his friends, highly esteemed by his classmates, and appreciated by his teachers, but nothing could convince him of his self-worth. Yet he was by no means an introvert; on the contrary, he would pour out everything he took in, delighting those around him with fabulous displays of knowledge and his uncanny ability to translate the most complicated ideas into images and metaphors that anyone could understand, threading together concepts from disparate fields that he drew from the ever-growing n
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Autoren-Porträt von Benjamin Labatut
Benjamín Labatut
Bibliographische Angaben
- Autor: Benjamin Labatut
- 2023, 368 Seiten, Maße: 16,2 x 23,1 cm, Gebunden, Englisch
- Verlag: Penguin Press
- ISBN-10: 0593654471
- ISBN-13: 9780593654477
- Erscheinungsdatum: 05.10.2023
Sprache:
Englisch
Pressezitat
Wonderfully counterintuitive . . . You just throw up your hands and think, Who cares what discourse label we assign this stuff? It s great. Tom McCarthy, The New York Times Book ReviewLabatut s latest virtuosic effort, at once a historical novel and a philosophical foray, is a thematic sequel, an exploration of what results when we take reason to even further extremes . . . A contemporary writer of thrilling originality . . . The MANIAC is a work of dark, eerie and singular beauty. Becca Rothfeld, The Washington Post
Darkly absorbing . . . A brooding, heady narrative that is addictively interesting . . . Certainly read this gripping, provocative novel. Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal
What [Labatut] brings to the page is something almost indescribably layered and complex that feels like a genre unto itself . . . Labatut has an uncanny ability to inhabit the psyche of these subjects even though he s conjuring up their recollections, they still come across as wholly reliable narrators. There is so much depth and profundity within their reminiscing, so much foreshadowing of the present moment when it seems AI is all we re hearing about. Allison Arieff, San Francisco Chronicle
The novel s final section, a thrilling human-versus-machine matchup, points to what von Neumann had wrought and reflects the warnings of Labatut s Wigner. Although its science never strays from what s been reported in the real world and although Labatut honors the discipline of historical fiction, The MANIAC qualifies as science fiction, at least as practiced by Mary Shelley and her adaptors. Neither Shelley nor Labatut includes in their work a scene of a scientist shouting, It s alive! as some cursed creation lumbers to life. But the warning of that moment powers The MANIAC as surely as electricity enlivened Frankenstein s monster, a breakthrough who, in every telling, boasts the capacity to break us.
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Alan Scherstuhl, Scientific American
Labatut s dark vision of modern science, and the way he skillfully distorts von Neumann s biography to communicate that darkness, will be familiar to readers of When We Cease to Understand the World . . . In addition to explaining the basics of cellular automata, Labatut turns the idea into a symbol of von Neumann s failure to respect the difference between the gamelike abstractions of mathematics and the messy seriousness of human life . . . Labatut imagines one Go official s view on the matter, saying, There s no point in playing out the endgame if you know you re going to lose, right? Today, when AI is on the cusp of making everyone from coders to truck drivers obsolete, that question feels more uncomfortably relevant than ever. Adam Kirsch, The Atlantic
Utterly absorbing . . . The book drives at the amorality with which von Neumann and his brilliant cohort set humanity on an apocalyptic path . . . [A] terrifying sense of skirting the abyss. The Sunday Times
His singular technique of chronicling scientific innovation via fictionalized narrative is superbly effective, drawing the reader through a tale of technological trepidation with all the nervous patience of a burning bomb fuse. It is as thrilling as it is troubling one of those disquieting reads whose conflicts and questions churn in your mind long after you have finished reading. Nautilus
Labatut s unique framing of John von Neumann s brilliance and his descriptions of the transcendent power of computers and AI creates a disturbing, awe-inspiring, and inevitable vision, one foreseen by von Neumann, of an ominous future dominated by near infinite technological possibilities. Booklist (starred review)
The MANIAC arrives not a second too late to help us make sense of the burgeoning AI revolution . . . It s a necessary book, a harrowing one, and it will change the way you look at the world around you. LitHub
Labatut s book will provoke and inform, leaving us no more sure-footed in our nascent age of AI but certainly more aware. BookPage
Labatut elegantly captures the sense of geniuses outstripping the typical boundaries of intellectual achievement and paying a price for it . . . Sharply written fiction ably capturing primitive emotions and boundary-breaking research. Kirkus
After the slender yet incendiary When We Cease to Understand the World, Labatut returns with a sensational epic of the Hungarian American physicist and computer scientist John von Neumann . . . Labatut mesmerizes in his accessible depictions of complex scientific material and in his inspired portraits of the innovators. In his previous book, Labatut grappled with the ways in which scientific breakthroughs offered new means of experiencing reality; this one succeeds at showing how acts of genius might break the world forever. Readers won t be able to turn away. Publisher s Weekly (starred review)
Labatut has created his own genre: fictionalized accounts of great minds in the history of science, whose genius drives them to madness . . . The MANIAC charts the sweep of modern computing, from its first inklings in punched cards used in jacquard textile looms, all the way to dramatic confrontations between artificial intelligence and acclaimed masters of chess and Go. Labatut s prose is lucid and compelling, drawing readers on a frightening but fascinating journey; even the most right-brained among them will gain insight into the power and potential dangers of AI. Highly recommended. Library Journal (starred review)
UK PRAISE
Brilliantly cerebral. Sunday Telegraph (five stars)
[Labatut] is fast emerging as the most significant South American writer since Borges . . . There is no one writing like him anywhere in the world. Telegraph
Intoxicating . . . this marvel of a book, which inspires awe and dread in equal measure, is stalked by the greatest terrors of the 20th century, yet its final heart-stopping sentence makes clear the greatest terrors are yet to come. Daily Mail
A dark, strange novel by a rising literary star. New Scientist
Absorbing . . . The MANIAC reads like physicist Carlo Rovelli crossed with the cosmic horror of HP Lovecraft. Chris Power, Sunday Times
Monstrously good . . . Reads like a dark foundation myth about modern technology but told with the pace of a thriller. Mark Haddon
As addictive as a true crime tale. Mail on Sunday
Both entertains and provokes . . . His infernal vision of science captures something of the unsettling vertigo of living right here in the Anthropocene after all. TLS
Labatut's voice comes from the future, to free us from the curse of our present. Wolfram Eilenberger, author of Time of the Magicians
Labatut s dark vision of modern science, and the way he skillfully distorts von Neumann s biography to communicate that darkness, will be familiar to readers of When We Cease to Understand the World . . . In addition to explaining the basics of cellular automata, Labatut turns the idea into a symbol of von Neumann s failure to respect the difference between the gamelike abstractions of mathematics and the messy seriousness of human life . . . Labatut imagines one Go official s view on the matter, saying, There s no point in playing out the endgame if you know you re going to lose, right? Today, when AI is on the cusp of making everyone from coders to truck drivers obsolete, that question feels more uncomfortably relevant than ever. Adam Kirsch, The Atlantic
Utterly absorbing . . . The book drives at the amorality with which von Neumann and his brilliant cohort set humanity on an apocalyptic path . . . [A] terrifying sense of skirting the abyss. The Sunday Times
His singular technique of chronicling scientific innovation via fictionalized narrative is superbly effective, drawing the reader through a tale of technological trepidation with all the nervous patience of a burning bomb fuse. It is as thrilling as it is troubling one of those disquieting reads whose conflicts and questions churn in your mind long after you have finished reading. Nautilus
Labatut s unique framing of John von Neumann s brilliance and his descriptions of the transcendent power of computers and AI creates a disturbing, awe-inspiring, and inevitable vision, one foreseen by von Neumann, of an ominous future dominated by near infinite technological possibilities. Booklist (starred review)
The MANIAC arrives not a second too late to help us make sense of the burgeoning AI revolution . . . It s a necessary book, a harrowing one, and it will change the way you look at the world around you. LitHub
Labatut s book will provoke and inform, leaving us no more sure-footed in our nascent age of AI but certainly more aware. BookPage
Labatut elegantly captures the sense of geniuses outstripping the typical boundaries of intellectual achievement and paying a price for it . . . Sharply written fiction ably capturing primitive emotions and boundary-breaking research. Kirkus
After the slender yet incendiary When We Cease to Understand the World, Labatut returns with a sensational epic of the Hungarian American physicist and computer scientist John von Neumann . . . Labatut mesmerizes in his accessible depictions of complex scientific material and in his inspired portraits of the innovators. In his previous book, Labatut grappled with the ways in which scientific breakthroughs offered new means of experiencing reality; this one succeeds at showing how acts of genius might break the world forever. Readers won t be able to turn away. Publisher s Weekly (starred review)
Labatut has created his own genre: fictionalized accounts of great minds in the history of science, whose genius drives them to madness . . . The MANIAC charts the sweep of modern computing, from its first inklings in punched cards used in jacquard textile looms, all the way to dramatic confrontations between artificial intelligence and acclaimed masters of chess and Go. Labatut s prose is lucid and compelling, drawing readers on a frightening but fascinating journey; even the most right-brained among them will gain insight into the power and potential dangers of AI. Highly recommended. Library Journal (starred review)
UK PRAISE
Brilliantly cerebral. Sunday Telegraph (five stars)
[Labatut] is fast emerging as the most significant South American writer since Borges . . . There is no one writing like him anywhere in the world. Telegraph
Intoxicating . . . this marvel of a book, which inspires awe and dread in equal measure, is stalked by the greatest terrors of the 20th century, yet its final heart-stopping sentence makes clear the greatest terrors are yet to come. Daily Mail
A dark, strange novel by a rising literary star. New Scientist
Absorbing . . . The MANIAC reads like physicist Carlo Rovelli crossed with the cosmic horror of HP Lovecraft. Chris Power, Sunday Times
Monstrously good . . . Reads like a dark foundation myth about modern technology but told with the pace of a thriller. Mark Haddon
As addictive as a true crime tale. Mail on Sunday
Both entertains and provokes . . . His infernal vision of science captures something of the unsettling vertigo of living right here in the Anthropocene after all. TLS
Labatut's voice comes from the future, to free us from the curse of our present. Wolfram Eilenberger, author of Time of the Magicians
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