Damn, I love your work, first of all- but this is the only shady move I’ve ever noticed on your channel. If your role on this film was as an assistant editor and assistant camera operator, why on earth does the intro say it’s “your 1966 documentary on John von Neumann”? Who’s the filmmaker? You have a wealth of gorgeous material you’ve created over decades, I can’t fathom the desire, much less the need, to exaggerate your accomplishments by “forgetting” to credit your betters from back when you were a young buck just learning the ropes. Forgive me for being such a Pollyanna, somehow still deluded or optimistic enough to believe in the depth of character you seem to communicate in the rest of your work.
I've been sometimes watching your videos for several years now, and am pleasantly surprised you have Edward Teller talking about intimate details about John Von Neumann! This is a rare, valuable film!
@harrysnothead8939 It's difficult to compare to Da Vinci and I think at a certain level of brilliance it's silly to try and do a ranking with a number one, number two, etc. However, von Neumann is definitely way, way up there. In terms of brute force intelligence that had the perfect environment to develop (wealthy and supportive family, supportive institutions, an academic network to integrate in, a long, productive, successful life dedicated to science), I can't think of anyone else who was such a perfect storm of nurture and nature.
They were mates in high school already. And friends to the last day. Johnny was described as a vibrant personality, married twice, fast cars, hard liquor, he was even said to have annoyed einstein in the institute for advanced study when he played loud german marching music in the room above einstein 😂. I think Teller is so emotional because he had a very emotional, human connection to him. Johnny was just a bro with a supercomputer brain.
I think in terms of brain power John von Neumann is probably the biggest...however we dont know what Isaac newton could do with his Brain@Jearbearjenkins
@@armin3057 Newton was like Einstein, Gauss and Archimedes put together into one. Not sure if as fast as von Neumann but definitely much broader and deeper.
@@midorimashintaro2092 I would like to watch it, Von Neumann is a fascinating character. My scepticism in regards to such a project derives in part from the notion that Personal portraits on Cinema are often heavily distorted and deceptive. Now, I might enjoy even a movie "based on true events" yet with little regard for the actualities concerning those events provided that the movie feautures a compelling narrative and a beautiful production, if, that is, the creators are frank and open about the artistic freedoms they have utilized. To give a second life to a historical event or person rather than to "realistically" portray that event or person
@@user-hu3iy9gz5j well that's what cinema is. It has to stay real to the source material but it also can't be a day to day re-enactment, nobody would watch that. Also, there's no one alive to determine as to what portrayal of von Neumann would be accurate, so there's no scenario in which you'd be satisfied.
It’s crazy to me that JVN, in the 1940s developed the framework for modern computing that still - almost 100 years later drives how we design computers. I remember being an undergraduate learning about Princeton (Van Neumann) architecture in an advanced computer engineering course nearly a century after he developed it. Absolutely insane.
Got goose bumps as I was reading his biography. Too bad a large percentage of the population does not even have a clue who he was. Thank you for uploading this.
Oh I have read up on him extensively and he happens to have the same birthday as Jordan Maxwell, in my opinion one of the greatest speakers today on corruption and any other subject that has to do with the government.
While doing some research on Von Nuemann, I ran accross your clip. I am astounded at the way Teller speaks, and the dynamic way you presented this, Mr. Hoffman! The presentation is very unusual and intense!
Edward Teller was one of those people, like Henry Kissinger, who spoke unbelievably accurately and with great intensity. Regardless of whether you agree with his point of view, it was an amazing experience to be in his presence and hear the way he could think. David Hoffman-filmmaker
This is such a beautiful way of speaking only the older generation was capable of and everything he says sound so epic, so well laid out, that he can not just have made it up on the spot, the idea that van Neumann just liked thinking, waht a beatiful thought and that he might have considered the others just like children and the tragedy at the end of the speech. Just brilliant and it could be part of a great theater play.
Von Neumann was a child prodigy. When he was six years old, he could divide two eight-digit numbers in his head and could converse in Ancient Greek. When the six-year-old von Neumann caught his mother staring aimlessly, he asked her, "What are you calculating?"
I was always blown away by how many of our greatest minds shared their time in history. They knew each other. They changed the world together. After centuries of nothing, there were decades when centuries happend. Incredible to imagine.
@@janosvas8597if I had to posit a guess, I'd say advances in communication and travel. High quality systems of mail and publication distribution combined with high speed rail allowed all these great minds to communicate with each other at record speeds, sharing knowledge and bouncing ideas of each other in something approaching real-time (at least as compared with most of history). Genius is often stereotyped as a solo activity, but all great thinkers in the recent centuries were highly collaborative. Individuals may have come up with original ideas, but the germs for those ideas were often the result of formal and informal discussion. I would guess that there have always been great minds cropping up throughout human history. It's just that the vast majority of them were peasants, farming to survive, isolated from other geniuses, living unmarked lives and dying anonymous. It's only when civilization reaches the point where professional researchers can exist and be able to pursue research (through a combination of mass education and social mobility) that genius can contribute as it has.
No such geniuses also existed in previous centuries. I can name many, in these fields alone: Newton, Euler, Lagrange, Maxwell, Gauss, Galois - the list is long The wonder on the other hand is, that since this generation, there has hardly been anyone worth mentioning. Is the age of geniuses over - or is it only that they are never recognized during their times - but only afterwards?
The concentration and congregation of intellect had become much more feasible in the 20th century technological and globalized world than at earlier times. They knew each other, many of them met regularly and formed friendships, Germans, Hungarians, Englishmen, Austrians, Russians, Italians, Americans could assemble and be inspired and contribute to each other's work
As a Hungarian I feel bad that brilliant minds of the time like Leo Szilárd, Teller and von Neumann were never given the opportunity to make use of their talent at home.
I find it so cool that a small country like Hungary produced so many absolute geniuses! I never realized this until I read The making of the atomic bomb. All Hungarians should be proud of these men! I often wonder how this happened, was it bcos of the times they grew up in, the schooling curriculum, or something else.
@@joekochinski5591 If I think about it, a lot of 20th century scientific breakthrough was achieved by a number of Hungarians (mostly Hungarian Jews) that lived in the same period and had similar heritage. Vitamin C (Szentgyörgyi), computer (Neumann), atomic bomb etc. Fascinating thing indeed! Unfortunately, as I said, Hungary didn't have the capacity to make them flourish as scientists. Teller remained a proud Hungarian though.
@@joekochinski5591 it's a combination of things. In 1867 Hungary passed a law that was the most progressive in Europe at the time regarding religious freedom. This attracted hundreds of thousands of jewish immigrants into the country from neighboring countries, mostly white collar workers. Education in the country was at a really high level, thanks to Kuno Klebersberg who reformed and modernised it. Espeically secondary education was really strong. The only way to achieve something in life for the middle class was/is through education and Hungary was pretty poor so people did their best. Unfortunately the country lost a lot of their great minds due to no/few opportunities (left the country) and the 2nd world war and the holocaust.
This is a gem. I feel the same awe for the logical and mathematical abilities of Von Neumann as I feel for the musical abilities of Glenn Gould. Both men were so brilliant at what they did that people who witnessed them in action (including their colleagues) found it hard to believe that they were witnessing a human being. Von Neumann reportedly had a photographic memory and could recall entire books word for word even years later, which no doubt helped him to think as fast as he did. Gould was also said to possess a photographic memory, and he had perfect pitch. His capacity to remember long musical pieces for many years is legendary. For example, he played Beethoven's Emperor Concerto on very short notice (substituting for Michelangeli who cancelled his performance), not having played it for several years. Both men were child prodigies, even though Gould did not see himself as a child prodigy (probably a reflection of his contrarian streak).
His facial expression when he says von neumann has the same kind of relationship with all other humans as he has with his 3 year old son is extraordinary. Edward Teller was so intelligent he was considered a Martian. And he felt like a toddler next to him. Johnny must be from betelgeuse.
That sadness of being degraded to a child... or was it him being touched by the thought of his benevolent "intellectual parent", and the sad look only due to the loss of him?
@@EliasHasle It isn't sadness for that, it isn't a matter of 'degrading'. These are after all some of the best scientists of the 20th century. I think the sadness is for his friend that passed, who admittedly was much sharper and quicker than he was, but who didn't hold that above people.
It is strange that when Neumann was dying, he was still trying to argue just as when Einstein was dying, what did he do? He asked for some paper and a pen and to be able to do his mathematics until he took his last breath.
It's crazy to think that the time of von Neumann to today is less than one person's lifetime ... one lifetime for the rise and dominance of the "digital brain" and its massive effect on humanity's path.
John Von Neumann's digital computer design became the most popular in the world, I guarantee that you have more than one device using Von Neumann architecture, and yet there are very few video/photos of him
Sounds like John was an incredible person. It’s sad to hear how difficult it got in his last years. It reminds me of H. L. Mencken. He suffered a stroke that left him aware and fully conscious but nearly unable to read or write and able to speak only with some considerable difficulty. After his stroke, Mencken enjoyed listening to classical music and, after some recovery of his ability to speak, talking with friends, but he sometimes referred to himself in the past tense, as if he were already dead. His dear friend/biographer William Manchester read to him daily the last year he passed.
He was a genius in many different fields of science as far as I know.I mostly knew about his work in game theory and that he was integral of the MAD system.The mutual assured destruction system that still prevents human beings to initiate a nuclear attack.
It is worth nothing that during the Manhattan project it was von Neumann who came up with the mathematical solution to the problem of the implosion-type device using plutonium. Von Neumann is quite an elusive figure for some reason, even though many think that he might have been the greatest mind of all time, however loose that term might be.
The notion that von Neumann enjoyed nothing else but thinking doesn't square with other descriptions of him. Biographers described von Neumann as someone who loved drinking, dancing, driving recklessly, telling jokes and having a good time. In fact, he proposed to his first wife by expressing to her that "you and I could have some fun together, seeing as we both like to drink".
My film was made 49 years ago. I believe it was the accurate perception of Edward Teller at that time. Although biographers I suspect wrote long after these interviews were made. David Hoffman-filmmaker
I’m sorry to interrupt this course of thinking. But i study at the same institution as Neumann who was originally Hungarian. His way of thinking is Hungarian, and his mother tongue is Hungarian. He learnt the fundaments of math in Hungarian which determined his way of thinking on a fundamental level. Our language is considered as one of the oldest, an entirely based on agglutination = building strucktures brick by brick. We are historically known for being outgoing and party people. It’s so deep in our heart and culture that i strongly suspect Neumann kinda belittled Einstein and others for being stereotypical nerd guys/scientsts. The stories of his weird driving habits are also true, as he had a good sense of humour. Let’s not forget there were way less cars on the road and traffic was way slower. Therefore for his quick brain paying attention to the road felt ineffective. I’ve read a story about him where he participated in a conference where he took a(n impossible) challenge to drink vodka as fast as a russian colleague. They were discussing some theorems and at one point of the evening Neumann politely interrupted saying he’d gone to the restroom. There he threw up all the vodka and returned to discuss the problem vithout interruption.(I study automotive engineering). Our education is based on the prussian system (I also have prussian elders), and the vodka story is so typical here, it kinda happens every day. We do heavy drinking, but it’s not allowed to interrupt work, so students come to class in complete hungover and perform one way or another. My uni has 3 nobel laureates and countless other contributions so I’m kinda proud to be there. And i don’t like him being called Von cause the germans shouldn’t get all the credits, and von is a word for noble people. Neumann’s family wasn’t novelty in Hungary.
@@tamarakiss5943 If you are so sensitive about credits and doing a nationalist rhetoric, why not tell the whole truth? Von Neumann was not Hungarian, he was Jewish! Born in the wealthy family of a banker! Of course he was a Hungarian citizen but NEVER HAD Hungarian origins. He studied chemical engineering, first some non-degree courses in Berlin, then he entered ETH Zurich. In the same time he also got admitted for a Phd. in mathematics in Budapest, but as Eugene Wigner wrote "Evidently a Ph.D. thesis and examination did not constitute an appreciable effort". He then continued his studies to University of Göttingen. So, except junior school and high school, not much time spend studying in Hungary .... The "von" was given to his father by Emperor Franz-Joseph for his services to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, initially "de Margitta", a title in the Hungarian nobility. He later changed it to "von Neumann", it was his choice, either you like it or not! Hungary has a lot of Nobel Prize laureates to take credit for. But I think John von Neumann, Eugene Wigner, Edward Teller should not be among them. They were all, as probably 80% of the Nobel Prize Laureates for science, Jewish.
If this film was available in a downloadable format for a reasonable price (ie not 80 dollars...) I would buy it and recommend it to several friends in a heartbeat.
MrChimei: It will not be downloadable for quite a while. Right now, it is primarily being purchased by schools and libraries. Thank you For checking in on it. David Hoffman-filmmaker
I too would enjoy watching the entire video. Both DVD format & $80 price-ticket seem to unnecessarily restrict access to Johnny's insights. I'd be surprised if you couldnt get it onto a pay-per-view streaming service somewhere, and make a decent return. Just a thought LOL
Von Neumann was so quick that it sometimes became a weakness. It prevented the kind of penetrating thinking that Einstein used to revolutionize physics. Von Neumann himself wished he had that gift. That’s why a team of scientists is the most effective.
That is steady camera-work for a hand-held. I imagine the camera-guy knew this video would be important historically, and he was doing his best to hold it steady.
he must have studied this interview, its uncanny. Sellers exaggerated it of course, but its Teller all the way. I wonder what Teller thought when he saw the movie, either total fury or "this Strangelove guy has some good ideas".
I believe that V Neumann worked out / developed the 2/s complement of binary number theory. This reduces subtraction to an addition. It vastly simplifies the architecture of a ALU of a computer as you don't have to treat subtraction separately and you don't have to do carries to the right . TEF.
@@DavidVonR Yes you are correct. What is strange about this is that two's complement is associated with binary devices like digital computers . However according to the Wiki entry, some mechanical calculating machines used 2's complement theory for their subtractions. I'm amazed by that. This suggests that the person who developed 2's c theory is unknown but perhaps developed the concept in the 1920s or thirties when serious calculators started to be developed. What this suggests is such calculators had a binary to decimal conversion module implemented mechanically. TEF
Hi David. This footage is so amazing, I cant believe it. I represent a small chip manufacturing company, we want to create an educational video about Von Neumann Architecture and its relevance in the 21st century . Will it be possible to use some of your footage? we will credit you, your work and anything you would like.
I don't pretend that Von Neumann is the best mathematician, in fact I would put him beyond Alexandre Grothendieck. But JVN is by far the greatest mind of the XXcentury (maybe ever), just in front of Majorana ans Ramanujan.
Johnny Von Neumann enjoyed thinking and I Edward Teller enjoy drinking blood after midnight.I tnought he was going to break out and sing Bella Lugosi 's dead😂
The FBI was founded by a Capricorn and I am Capricorn and I am always thinking always thinking. Edward Teller was Capricorn and he was speaking about John Van Newman, another Capricorn(Same Birthday as Jordan Maxwell) the endless chain of Capricorn evil and good and wise men. We can live simply, or we raise a world of complexity.
If you gave Einstein and Von Neumann a test of increasingly difficult questions, I have no doubt that Von Neumann would be far quicker at each question up to a certain level of difficulty. At that point, Einstein would be increasingly faster relative to Von Neumann at each question untill Von Neumann no longer would be able to answer the question at all. Einstein would be able to go much deeper. Both these aspects are part of intelligence, but to me the understanding part where Einstein had a clear edge, is the most important aspect of actual intellectual ability.
Here's a quote from Eugene Wigner that compares the two: "Einstein was far slower than Jancsi von Neumann to derive mathematical identities. His memory could be faulty, at least after 1933. And he was hardly interested in the details of physics. For a man like Edward Teller, developing the details of a physics problem was passionately important. For Einstein, it was not. In all spheres of life, Einstein's greatest pleasure was in finding, and later expressing, basic principles. But Einstein's understanding was deeper than even Jancsi von Neumann's. His mind was both more penetrating and more original than von Neumann's. And that is a very remarkable statement. Einstein took an extraordinary pleasure in invention. Two of his greatest inventions are the Special and General Theories of Relativity; and for all of Jancsi's brilliance, he never produced anything so original. No modern physicist has."
Why comparing them ? Einstein was a genius too by answering child questions with an adult brain. His creativity is out of this world to imagine such theories especially the general relativity
@@brucewayne2480The fact that everyone wants to compare person X of the time to Einstein and claim they were smarter kind of shows you that Einstein was the man. None of them actually were.
@Heisenberg-SchrodingerEmc2 In terms of raw ability there are merely a handful of people who can (maybe) compete with Neumann. Those would be the likes of Gauss, Euler, and Leibniz. JVN was just way too fast and sharp.
Intellectuals per se enjoy thinking, which raises the question of whether Von Neumann was an intellectual. Does a love for logical processes alone qualify one as an intellectual? I liked Camus' definition of the term, which was "one whose mind watches itself."
Whatever else he did, "Johnny" sat down with paper and a slide rule and figured out compounding compression waves for the implosion design....after nearly all the top minds of his day had failed. If everyone at Los Alamos had understood how special he was, none of them would have lost a second of sleep during the war. Unbelievable....
I have known the outline of the story for a long time. Learning about the actual participants has become my new avocation. I love his considered speech, his rhythm, his emphasis... Oof, so many mixed feelings. But ...but... His work laid the foundation for nearly 80 years of (relative) peace and progress. Let's hope trump goes to jail ASAP.
@2:02 - --"He could relate to my three year old son on his own terms, I somtimes wondered if his relationship to the rest of us was a little bit similar." It's a curse to be intellegent really.
It is a lot. But I make my living from the films I make and this is a film that only some people will buy. Mostly those who either are collecting the story or are using it in the classroom. So it is not being purchased like a Hollywood movie where tens of thousands are sold. David Hoffman-filmmaker
I understand your necessities Mr Hoffman, but doing it that way you are restricting the access to such a valuable content, that is nowhere else to be found and will be lost in time in the near future, when it could add so much to other peoples lives. I suggest you to try and sign a contract with a content distributor, so more people can appreciate your work!
Teller sure was. His promise is that his weapons would end World War but instead it fell into the hands of complete idiot and ended up escalating into heavier warfare... Arms races.
I remember watching this decades ago, from the Courant library. So memorable. "Youth Needs to Know," the description of his deathbed suffering, the contrast between the pain most people feel in thinking and the lucky ones who enjoy it One of his brothers wrote a bio about him. It's easily searchable on Google: "A book by one of his brothers: John von Neumann As Seen By His Brother. I found particularly interesting his teachers' protecting young Johnny by sitting him at the front of the class apart from others, the dinner discussions in which the children would report on the day in order of birth (Johnny was oldest and so got the most practice), and the perspective on Johnny's memory--that the axiomatic approach was more central to his success as a genius.
I no fan of Teller but hearing him talk about Von Neumann was gratifying. Von Neumann entropy might even end up explaining entanglement. He was a science rock star on the order of Einstein.
people think that Einstein was the greatest mind of the 20th century, and while Einstein was extremely brilliant, von Neumann was probably even far more brilliant.
Supposedly if someone had asked John von Neumann, who was the greatest mind of the 20th century, he would have answered Kurt Godel (creator of the Incompleteness Theorem).
Here is the entire documentary - worth watching - ua-cam.com/video/q5SkVmZhnBw/v-deo.html
Damn, I love your work, first of all- but this is the only shady move I’ve ever noticed on your channel.
If your role on this film was as an assistant editor and assistant camera operator, why on earth does the intro say it’s “your 1966 documentary on John von Neumann”? Who’s the filmmaker?
You have a wealth of gorgeous material you’ve created over decades, I can’t fathom the desire, much less the need, to exaggerate your accomplishments by “forgetting” to credit your betters from back when you were a young buck just learning the ropes.
Forgive me for being such a Pollyanna, somehow still deluded or optimistic enough to believe in the depth of character you seem to communicate in the rest of your work.
awesomet tyvm
I've been sometimes watching your videos for several years now, and am pleasantly surprised you have Edward Teller talking about intimate details about John Von Neumann! This is a rare, valuable film!
NOT GENIUS.....JUST A BOLSHEVIK PROPAGANDA
Thanks David Hoffman! I remembered the video but I didn't know you posted it.
Benny Safdie's accent as Teller (and performance, overall) was so spot on.
"Original solutions in areas where most people did not even notice the problems" . . . An amazing statement!
Teller - To most people, thinking is painful. So damn true!
That was the most heartfelt tribute I have ever heard. Von Neumann must have been a very gifted person and obviously very special to Teller.
Von Neumann has an excellent shot at being the smartest human that we know of.
@harrysnothead8939 It's difficult to compare to Da Vinci and I think at a certain level of brilliance it's silly to try and do a ranking with a number one, number two, etc. However, von Neumann is definitely way, way up there. In terms of brute force intelligence that had the perfect environment to develop (wealthy and supportive family, supportive institutions, an academic network to integrate in, a long, productive, successful life dedicated to science), I can't think of anyone else who was such a perfect storm of nurture and nature.
They were mates in high school already. And friends to the last day. Johnny was described as a vibrant personality, married twice, fast cars, hard liquor, he was even said to have annoyed einstein in the institute for advanced study when he played loud german marching music in the room above einstein 😂. I think Teller is so emotional because he had a very emotional, human connection to him. Johnny was just a bro with a supercomputer brain.
I think in terms of brain power John von Neumann is probably the biggest...however we dont know what Isaac newton could do with his Brain@Jearbearjenkins
@@armin3057 Newton was like Einstein, Gauss and Archimedes put together into one. Not sure if as fast as von Neumann but definitely much broader and deeper.
von neumann deserves his own movie
Indeed.
He deserves to be spared
@@user-hu3iy9gz5jknowing that people like you wont watch his movie spares him enough.
@@midorimashintaro2092 I would like to watch it, Von Neumann is a fascinating character. My scepticism in regards to such a project derives in part from the notion that Personal portraits on Cinema are often heavily distorted and deceptive.
Now, I might enjoy even a movie "based on true events" yet with little regard for the actualities concerning those events provided that the movie feautures a compelling narrative and a beautiful production, if, that is, the creators are frank and open about the artistic freedoms they have utilized. To give a second life to a historical event or person rather than to "realistically" portray that event or person
@@user-hu3iy9gz5j well that's what cinema is. It has to stay real to the source material but it also can't be a day to day re-enactment, nobody would watch that. Also, there's no one alive to determine as to what portrayal of von Neumann would be accurate, so there's no scenario in which you'd be satisfied.
It’s crazy to me that JVN, in the 1940s developed the framework for modern computing that still - almost 100 years later drives how we design computers. I remember being an undergraduate learning about Princeton (Van Neumann) architecture in an advanced computer engineering course nearly a century after he developed it. Absolutely insane.
Got goose bumps as I was reading his biography. Too bad a large percentage of the population does not even have a clue who he was. Thank you for uploading this.
Thankfully he achieved what an army of 7 billion people never could
i have had a hard time finding stuff on him
Oh I have read up on him extensively and he happens to have the same birthday as Jordan Maxwell, in my opinion one of the greatest speakers today on corruption and any other subject that has to do with the government.
I read 1/3 rd part of his biography.
Any good biographies about Johnny?
While doing some research on Von Nuemann, I ran accross your clip.
I am astounded at the way Teller speaks, and the dynamic way you presented this, Mr. Hoffman! The presentation is very unusual and intense!
Edward Teller was one of those people, like Henry Kissinger, who spoke unbelievably accurately and with great intensity. Regardless of whether you agree with his point of view, it was an amazing experience to be in his presence and hear the way he could think.
David Hoffman-filmmaker
@@DavidHoffmanFilmmaker sell me this documentary !
This is such a beautiful way of speaking only the older generation was capable of and everything he says sound so epic, so well laid out, that he can not just have made it up on the spot, the idea that van Neumann just liked thinking, waht a beatiful thought and that he might have considered the others just like children and the tragedy at the end of the speech. Just brilliant and it could be part of a great theater play.
Von Neumann was a child prodigy. When he was six years old, he could divide two eight-digit numbers in his head and could converse in Ancient Greek. When the six-year-old von Neumann caught his mother staring aimlessly, he asked her, "What are you calculating?"
that's so goofy :D
8 months and 8 days
I read the wiki on von neumann and he's absolutely mind boggling
I was always blown away by how many of our greatest minds shared their time in history. They knew each other. They changed the world together. After centuries of nothing, there were decades when centuries happend. Incredible to imagine.
I am thinking also about, what is/was the reason for such acceleration exactely in our days. How could explain this really causal?
@@janosvas8597if I had to posit a guess, I'd say advances in communication and travel. High quality systems of mail and publication distribution combined with high speed rail allowed all these great minds to communicate with each other at record speeds, sharing knowledge and bouncing ideas of each other in something approaching real-time (at least as compared with most of history).
Genius is often stereotyped as a solo activity, but all great thinkers in the recent centuries were highly collaborative. Individuals may have come up with original ideas, but the germs for those ideas were often the result of formal and informal discussion.
I would guess that there have always been great minds cropping up throughout human history. It's just that the vast majority of them were peasants, farming to survive, isolated from other geniuses, living unmarked lives and dying anonymous. It's only when civilization reaches the point where professional researchers can exist and be able to pursue research (through a combination of mass education and social mobility) that genius can contribute as it has.
No such geniuses also existed in previous centuries. I can name many, in these fields alone: Newton, Euler, Lagrange, Maxwell, Gauss, Galois - the list is long
The wonder on the other hand is, that since this generation, there has hardly been anyone worth mentioning.
Is the age of geniuses over - or is it only that they are never recognized during their times - but only afterwards?
All these scientists came to the US at the same time to escape the Nazis.
The concentration and congregation of intellect had become much more feasible in the 20th century technological and globalized world than at earlier times. They knew each other, many of them met regularly and formed friendships, Germans, Hungarians, Englishmen, Austrians, Russians, Italians, Americans could assemble and be inspired and contribute to each other's work
Definitely the best applied mathematician, and one of the best pure mathematicians as far as I know.
One of the best, but not the best
As a Hungarian I feel bad that brilliant minds of the time like Leo Szilárd, Teller and von Neumann were never given the opportunity to make use of their talent at home.
In fact most great Hungarians made it abroad, almost none of them at home. 😢
I find it so cool that a small country like Hungary produced so many absolute geniuses! I never realized this until I read The making of the atomic bomb. All Hungarians should be proud of these men! I often wonder how this happened, was it bcos of the times they grew up in, the schooling curriculum, or something else.
@@joekochinski5591 If I think about it, a lot of 20th century scientific breakthrough was achieved by a number of Hungarians (mostly Hungarian Jews) that lived in the same period and had similar heritage. Vitamin C (Szentgyörgyi), computer (Neumann), atomic bomb etc. Fascinating thing indeed! Unfortunately, as I said, Hungary didn't have the capacity to make them flourish as scientists. Teller remained a proud Hungarian though.
@@joekochinski5591 it was the end product of a great maths teacher, László Rátz. Great teachers will make great minds blossom.
@@joekochinski5591 it's a combination of things. In 1867 Hungary passed a law that was the most progressive in Europe at the time regarding religious freedom. This attracted hundreds of thousands of jewish immigrants into the country from neighboring countries, mostly white collar workers.
Education in the country was at a really high level, thanks to Kuno Klebersberg who reformed and modernised it. Espeically secondary education was really strong.
The only way to achieve something in life for the middle class was/is through education and Hungary was pretty poor so people did their best.
Unfortunately the country lost a lot of their great minds due to no/few opportunities (left the country) and the 2nd world war and the holocaust.
This is a gem. I feel the same awe for the logical and mathematical abilities of Von Neumann as I feel for the musical abilities of Glenn Gould. Both men were so brilliant at what they did that people who witnessed them in action (including their colleagues) found it hard to believe that they were witnessing a human being. Von Neumann reportedly had a photographic memory and could recall entire books word for word even years later, which no doubt helped him to think as fast as he did. Gould was also said to possess a photographic memory, and he had perfect pitch. His capacity to remember long musical pieces for many years is legendary. For example, he played Beethoven's Emperor Concerto on very short notice (substituting for Michelangeli who cancelled his performance), not having played it for several years. Both men were child prodigies, even though Gould did not see himself as a child prodigy (probably a reflection of his contrarian streak).
He is my favorite physicist, right alongside Feynman! It's a shame there is so little about him in books, movies, or documentaries.
Tell me you are American without telling me
@@thefreevoice808What’s so wrong with that?
My personal favorite is Oppenheimer and Feynman.
Von Neumann was more of a mathematician than a physicist.
@@crypticsg8748have you watched the movie?
His facial expression when he says von neumann has the same kind of relationship with all other humans as he has with his 3 year old son is extraordinary. Edward Teller was so intelligent he was considered a Martian. And he felt like a toddler next to him. Johnny must be from betelgeuse.
That sadness of being degraded to a child... or was it him being touched by the thought of his benevolent "intellectual parent", and the sad look only due to the loss of him?
@@EliasHasle It isn't sadness for that, it isn't a matter of 'degrading'. These are after all some of the best scientists of the 20th century. I think the sadness is for his friend that passed, who admittedly was much sharper and quicker than he was, but who didn't hold that above people.
It is strange that when Neumann was dying, he was still trying to argue just as when Einstein was dying, what did he do? He asked for some paper and a pen and to be able to do his mathematics until he took his last breath.
I know this is about John Von Neumann, but Edward Teller's views on things are always so real and refreshing to me.
It’s a tragedy that most people don’t even know about Jonn Von Neumann
Why does it matter though ? knowing about him or not will make no difference to their life as these people aren't educated anyways .
I do and I’m just a lowly construction worker . But I’m kinda weird like that 😂
@@angusdog22 not lowly at all my friend, you help build society, literally. Appreciate your work! :)
He is well-known in computer science
Trump has said, many times, that Von Neumann is one of his heroes.
Nothing but the respect for the man, but also for Peter Sellers for stealing Dr. Teller's persona for Dr. Strangelove.
hahaha i was wondering the same thing myself. surely the bad guy is suppose to be von braun even if he looks and sounds like teller
Zseni a zseniről.! Büszkeséggel tölt el, hogy mindketten Magyarok voltak!
Truth has been told the key to genius is having the capability to enjoy thinking
the key to genius is to have good genes.
I read the wiki on von neumann and he's absolutely mind boggling. Teller - To most people, thinking is painful. So damn true!.
It's crazy to think that the time of von Neumann to today is less than one person's lifetime ... one lifetime for the rise and dominance of the "digital brain" and its massive effect on humanity's path.
Edward Teller authored a short but compelling text titled, The Pursuit of Simplicity. Worth the read.
John Von Neumann's digital computer design became the most popular in the world, I guarantee that you have more than one device using Von Neumann architecture, and yet there are very few video/photos of him
Sounds like John was an incredible person. It’s sad to hear how difficult it got in his last years. It reminds me of H. L. Mencken.
He suffered a stroke that left him aware and fully conscious but nearly unable to read or write and able to speak only with some considerable difficulty. After his stroke, Mencken enjoyed listening to classical music and, after some recovery of his ability to speak, talking with friends, but he sometimes referred to himself in the past tense, as if he were already dead. His dear friend/biographer William Manchester read to him daily the last year he passed.
Hellish ending to that monologue
Teller gets derided as Dr Strangelove, but here shows sincere respect and empathy for Von Neumann.
Thanks for the video, what a collection you have, David! Neumann had a brain unlike anything we have ever seen, and probabaly will see
He was a genius in many different fields of science as far as I know.I mostly knew about his work in game theory and that he was integral of the MAD system.The mutual assured destruction system that still prevents human beings to initiate a nuclear attack.
It is worth nothing that during the Manhattan project it was von Neumann who came up with the mathematical solution to the problem of the implosion-type device using plutonium. Von Neumann is quite an elusive figure for some reason, even though many think that he might have been the greatest mind of all time, however loose that term might be.
The notion that von Neumann enjoyed nothing else but thinking doesn't square with other descriptions of him. Biographers described von Neumann as someone who loved drinking, dancing, driving recklessly, telling jokes and having a good time. In fact, he proposed to his first wife by expressing to her that "you and I could have some fun together, seeing as we both like to drink".
My film was made 49 years ago. I believe it was the accurate perception of Edward Teller at that time. Although biographers I suspect wrote long after these interviews were made.
David Hoffman-filmmaker
He said practically nothing else. Not nothing else at all.
I’m sorry to interrupt this course of thinking. But i study at the same institution as Neumann who was originally Hungarian. His way of thinking is Hungarian, and his mother tongue is Hungarian. He learnt the fundaments of math in Hungarian which determined his way of thinking on a fundamental level. Our language is considered as one of the oldest, an entirely based on agglutination = building strucktures brick by brick. We are historically known for being outgoing and party people. It’s so deep in our heart and culture that i strongly suspect Neumann kinda belittled Einstein and others for being stereotypical nerd guys/scientsts. The stories of his weird driving habits are also true, as he had a good sense of humour. Let’s not forget there were way less cars on the road and traffic was way slower. Therefore for his quick brain paying attention to the road felt ineffective. I’ve read a story about him where he participated in a conference where he took a(n impossible) challenge to drink vodka as fast as a russian colleague. They were discussing some theorems and at one point of the evening Neumann politely interrupted saying he’d gone to the restroom. There he threw up all the vodka and returned to discuss the problem vithout interruption.(I study automotive engineering). Our education is based on the prussian system (I also have prussian elders), and the vodka story is so typical here, it kinda happens every day. We do heavy drinking, but it’s not allowed to interrupt work, so students come to class in complete hungover and perform one way or another. My uni has 3 nobel laureates and countless other contributions so I’m kinda proud to be there. And i don’t like him being called Von cause the germans shouldn’t get all the credits, and von is a word for noble people. Neumann’s family wasn’t novelty in Hungary.
Thanks tamara
@@tamarakiss5943 If you are so sensitive about credits and doing a nationalist rhetoric, why not tell the whole truth?
Von Neumann was not Hungarian, he was Jewish! Born in the wealthy family of a banker! Of course he was a Hungarian citizen but NEVER HAD Hungarian origins. He studied chemical engineering, first some non-degree courses in Berlin, then he entered ETH Zurich. In the same time he also got admitted for a Phd. in mathematics in Budapest, but as Eugene Wigner wrote "Evidently a Ph.D. thesis and examination did not constitute an appreciable effort". He then continued his studies to University of Göttingen. So, except junior school and high school, not much time spend studying in Hungary ....
The "von" was given to his father by Emperor Franz-Joseph for his services to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, initially "de Margitta", a title in the Hungarian nobility. He later changed it to "von Neumann", it was his choice, either you like it or not!
Hungary has a lot of Nobel Prize laureates to take credit for. But I think John von Neumann, Eugene Wigner, Edward Teller should not be among them. They were all, as probably 80% of the Nobel Prize Laureates for science, Jewish.
If this film was available in a downloadable format for a reasonable price (ie not 80 dollars...) I would buy it and recommend it to several friends in a heartbeat.
MrChimei: It will not be downloadable for quite a while. Right now, it is primarily being purchased by schools and libraries. Thank you For checking in on it.
David Hoffman-filmmaker
@@SP-fy7oc no. sorry.
David Hoffman Filmmaker
I too would enjoy watching the entire video. Both DVD format & $80 price-ticket seem to unnecessarily restrict access to Johnny's insights. I'd be surprised if you couldnt get it onto a pay-per-view streaming service somewhere, and make a decent return.
Just a thought LOL
Von Neumann was so quick that it sometimes became a weakness. It prevented the kind of penetrating thinking that Einstein used to revolutionize physics. Von Neumann himself wished he had that gift. That’s why a team of scientists is the most effective.
That is steady camera-work for a hand-held. I imagine the camera-guy knew this video would be important historically, and
he was doing his best to hold it steady.
Thank you. I did use a camera brace that it was handheld.
David Hoffman filmmaker
The voice is extremely similar to the actor doing the movie.
God I might watch it a third time...
the actor did a brilliant job playing Teller.
He was hungarian
I can listen to him talk all day!!!
Very sad that he departed the world like this, and too early.
That last statement is pretty damn moving.
Thanks for bringing this to us again.
The lost outtakes from Dr. Strangelove.... "The mine shaft gap."
Wow, Peter Sellers really nailed this.
he must have studied this interview, its uncanny. Sellers exaggerated it of course, but its Teller all the way. I wonder what Teller thought when he saw the movie, either total fury or "this Strangelove guy has some good ideas".
Remarkable and precious footage. Thank you for sharing.
This man (Teller) saved the world 3 times. RESPECT!
World would have been a better place without teller
Probably the most influential man of the 20th century
I believe that V Neumann worked out / developed the 2/s complement of binary number theory. This reduces subtraction to an addition. It vastly simplifies the architecture of a ALU of a computer as you don't have to treat subtraction separately and you don't have to do carries to the right . TEF.
von Neumann didn't develop the two's complement method, rather he suggested that it be used for the ENIAC/EDVAC.
@@DavidVonR Yes you are correct. What is strange about this is that two's complement is associated with binary devices like digital computers . However according to the Wiki entry, some mechanical calculating machines used 2's complement theory for their subtractions. I'm amazed by that. This suggests that the person who developed 2's c theory is unknown but perhaps developed the concept in the 1920s or thirties when serious calculators started to be developed. What this suggests is such calculators had a binary to decimal conversion module implemented mechanically. TEF
The man really had presence. He starts slowly and quietly and builds to an earthquake.
Bertrand Russell said: Most people would rather die than think and many of them do!
Excellent video!
What an awesome performed tribute 😎👍
That last part of what Teller told about him is the most dreadful darkest thing I can think of...!! Damn...!😞 It hit me
Master Mentat On Chief Mentant 😇 wow!
Edward Teller speaks reverentially of Von Neumann. LET THAT SINK IN.
When so many top tier respected scientists say you're a genius, you're obviously on another level
Thank you for sharing this!
Hi David. This footage is so amazing, I cant believe it. I represent a small chip manufacturing company, we want to create an educational video about Von Neumann Architecture and its relevance in the 21st century . Will it be possible to use some of your footage? we will credit you, your work and anything you would like.
please conact my office at allinaday@aol.com.
David Hoffman - filmmaker
I don't pretend that Von Neumann is the best mathematician, in fact I would put him beyond Alexandre Grothendieck. But JVN is by far the greatest mind of the XXcentury (maybe ever), just in front of Majorana ans Ramanujan.
Interesting and worthwhile video.
I just bought this. Thank you.
And thank you. I do hope that you find it of interest. made 48! years ago.
David Hoffman - filmmaker
damn...read through Von Neumann's Wikipedia page...the guy packed a lot into his 57 years.
Tragic, he died so young. Imagine the breakthroughs he might have achieved!
This mad lad (Teller) put on sunscreen during the trinity test to sunbathe in the light of the first ever nuclear explosion lol
Johnny Von Neumann enjoyed thinking and I Edward Teller enjoy drinking blood after midnight.I tnought he was going to break out and sing Bella Lugosi 's dead😂
We watch this on a hand held Von Neumann Machine.
The FBI was founded by a Capricorn and I am Capricorn and I am always thinking always thinking. Edward Teller was Capricorn and he was speaking about John Van Newman, another Capricorn(Same Birthday as Jordan Maxwell) the endless chain of Capricorn evil and good and wise men. We can live simply, or we raise a world of complexity.
Von Neumann's contemporaries considered him the smartest person alive and one of the smartest in history, even well beyond Einstein.
If you gave Einstein and Von Neumann a test of increasingly difficult questions, I have no doubt that Von Neumann would be far quicker at each question up to a certain level of difficulty. At that point, Einstein would be increasingly faster relative to Von Neumann at each question untill Von Neumann no longer would be able to answer the question at all. Einstein would be able to go much deeper.
Both these aspects are part of intelligence, but to me the understanding part where Einstein had a clear edge, is the most important aspect of actual intellectual ability.
Here's a quote from Eugene Wigner that compares the two:
"Einstein was far slower than Jancsi von Neumann to derive mathematical identities. His memory could be faulty, at least after 1933. And he was hardly interested in the details of physics. For a man like Edward Teller, developing the details of a physics problem was passionately important. For Einstein, it was not. In all spheres of life, Einstein's greatest pleasure was in finding, and later expressing, basic principles. But Einstein's understanding was deeper than even Jancsi von Neumann's. His mind was both more penetrating and more original than von Neumann's. And that is a very remarkable statement. Einstein took an extraordinary pleasure in invention. Two of his greatest inventions are the Special and General Theories of Relativity; and for all of Jancsi's brilliance, he never produced anything so original. No modern physicist has."
Why comparing them ?
Einstein was a genius too by answering child questions with an adult brain. His creativity is out of this world to imagine such theories especially the general relativity
@@brucewayne2480The fact that everyone wants to compare person X of the time to Einstein and claim they were smarter kind of shows you that Einstein was the man. None of them actually were.
Greatest Mathematician Of The 20th Century: von Neumann, Hilbert and probably Grothendieck and Kolmogorov.
Turing? Godel?
Also Perelman
@Heisenberg-SchrodingerEmc2
In terms of raw ability there are merely a handful of people who can (maybe) compete with Neumann. Those would be the likes of Gauss, Euler, and Leibniz.
JVN was just way too fast and sharp.
Brilliant insight
He seems a mad man
Intellectuals per se enjoy thinking, which raises the question of whether Von Neumann was an intellectual. Does a love for logical processes alone qualify one as an intellectual? I liked Camus' definition of the term, which was "one whose mind watches itself."
Beyond designing thermonuclear bombs, Teller could also act and speak quite well....
I would have said this cadence of speech had to inspire Sellars playing Dr. Strangelove, but I guess this was after that.
Death sitting in an easy chair.
Benjamin Labatut returns with Maniac later this year - a book about John von Neumann
I think my life just changed.
I love this man.
Whatever else he did, "Johnny" sat down with paper and a slide rule and figured out compounding compression waves for the implosion design....after nearly all the top minds of his day had failed. If everyone at Los Alamos had understood how special he was, none of them would have lost a second of sleep during the war. Unbelievable....
Teller Ede And Neumann János. The 2 "big" hungarian!
What about Szilard and Erdos?
“He could and did talk to my three year old in his own terms, and I sometimes wonder if his relation to the rest of us was a little bit similar.”
who is here after watching Oppenheimer?
I have known the outline of the story for a long time. Learning about the actual participants has become my new avocation.
I love his considered speech, his rhythm, his emphasis...
Oof, so many mixed feelings.
But ...but... His work laid the foundation for nearly 80 years of (relative) peace and progress.
Let's hope trump goes to jail ASAP.
Fermi and Jenő Wigner said they only knew one genius: Johnny.
If I had a brain like his I'm sure I would enjoy thinking too, but unfortunately most people don't
@2:02 - --"He could relate to my three year old son on his own terms, I somtimes wondered if his relationship to the rest of us was a little bit similar." It's a curse to be intellegent really.
79$ is a lot Mr Hoffman.Thanks for uploading
It is a lot. But I make my living from the films I make and this is a film that only some people will buy. Mostly those who either are collecting the story or are using it in the classroom. So it is not being purchased like a Hollywood movie where tens of thousands are sold.
David Hoffman-filmmaker
I understand your necessities Mr Hoffman, but doing it that way you are restricting the access to such a valuable content, that is nowhere else to be found and will be lost in time in the near future, when it could add so much to other peoples lives. I suggest you to try and sign a contract with a content distributor, so more people can appreciate your work!
This guy was fascinated, or obsessed with the thought of blowing up the earth, and then the whole universe.
Teller sure was. His promise is that his weapons would end World War but instead it fell into the hands of complete idiot and ended up escalating into heavier warfare... Arms races.
the content of this is moving and interesting but: what lovely, weird oratory!
R.I.P. JVN. I wonder what he would make of society nowadays.
All Physicists should try CIG Theory!
I remember watching this decades ago, from the Courant library. So memorable. "Youth Needs to Know," the description of his deathbed suffering, the contrast between the pain most people feel in thinking and the lucky ones who enjoy it
One of his brothers wrote a bio about him. It's easily searchable on Google: "A book by one of his brothers: John von Neumann As Seen By His Brother. I found particularly interesting his teachers' protecting young Johnny by sitting him at the front of the class apart from others, the dinner discussions in which the children would report on the day in order of birth (Johnny was oldest and so got the most practice), and the perspective on Johnny's memory--that the axiomatic approach was more central to his success as a genius.
Nice chair!
"Please buy my..." lol
I no fan of Teller but hearing him talk about Von Neumann was gratifying.
Von Neumann entropy might even end up explaining entanglement. He was a science rock star on the order of Einstein.
Benny Safdie did a pretty good job playing him
people think that Einstein was the greatest mind of the 20th century, and while Einstein was extremely brilliant, von Neumann was probably even far more brilliant.
Einstein father of modern physics
Einstein did not think as quickly but was more creative
@@peter0712 That’s debatable.
@@Brassard1985 You are correct, it is. I would say that most (probably not all) physicists and mathematicians find Einstein to be more creative.
Supposedly if someone had asked John von Neumann, who was the greatest mind of the 20th century, he would have answered Kurt Godel (creator of the Incompleteness Theorem).
Dr. Strangelove!
Wow. Imagine being so smart that you can lose 100 IQ points and still be fully aware that you've lost 100 IQ points.
Many pll dont know he invented computer virus and realized its possibility even before there was a computer