How could you, a mathematician, believe that extraterrestrials were sending you messages?" the visitor from Harvard asked the West Virginian with the movie-star looks and Olympian manner. "Because the ideas I had about supernatural beings came to me the same way my mathematical ideas did," came the answer. "So I took them seriously." Thus begins the true story of John Nash, the mathematical genius who was a legend by age thirty when he slipped into madness, and who -- thanks to the selflessness of a beautiful woman and the loyalty of the mathematics community -- emerged after decades of ghostlike existence to win a Nobel Prize and world acclaim. The inspiration for a major motion picture, Sylvia Nasar's award-winning biography is a drama about the mystery of the human mind, triumph over incredible adversity, and the healing power of love.
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西尔维娅·娜萨,曾任《财富》杂志和《美国新闻与世界报道》记者,现任《纽约时报》经济记者,本书是她的处女作。1991-1999年任《纽约时报》经济记者,1999-2000年为普林斯顿大学访问学者,2000年为剑桥大学金斯学院和丘吉尔学院访问研究员,2001年起任哥伦比业大学新闻学院商务新闻奈特教授。
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冯诺伊曼了解计算机的潜力,纯粹数学和应用数学的组多分支非常需要计算工具,用以打破目前由于纯粹分析的研究方法不能解决非线性问题而导致的停滞
如果他不能领导,他就独自前进。他知道自己是难以交流的:他发现变成寻常人无非常没有意思。只要不是跟自己说话,他就带上一个面具。在他内心有一种孤独,使人难以进行赞扬或谴责。
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