The Maniac

Never before has the narrative surrounding artificial intelligence- its origins, development, and implications for the future- been more relevant.

Labatut’s exploration of this topic in The MANIAC is laid out, appropriately, like the three parts of a game of go (or chess)— key players and seeds of ideas are set up in the opening, then the the reader enters the meat of the middlegame with a deep dive into John Von Neumann’s obsession with the mathematical precursors to AI, and, finally, the unforgettable and all-important endgame is reached with the extension and application of those ideas that had been spawned in fits of mania over seventy years prior.

The result is a captivating micro and macro view of Von Neumann that showcases not only the diverse viewpoints of those close to him but also the path of the waves he made that tore through the world so many years ago-- ones that we still feel the ripples of to this very day.