I liked this book. It provided a look into one of the prominent scientists of the twentieth century. It's just insane how many different areas von Neumann worked on. This was a fascinating look into a lot of of the backstory into computing.

Subtitle: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann

John von Neumann was a Hungarian mathematician, chemist, and physicist who immigrated to the United States just prior to World War II. While he rivaled Albert Einstein in intellect, he is known more for the applications he envisioned than for the theoretical aspects of science that Einstein is famous for. von Neumann did a lot of work for the U.S. government and military, and is rumored to have worked on the project that allegedly resulted in the infamous but unproven Philadelphia Experiment and to have worked on the UFO enigma on behalf of the Majestic 12 group (if such group actually existed).


This book had more detailed math and science in it than I anticipated from a biography. While there are a lot of personal details concerning his early years and education, by the time he came to the U.S. and began advising the government, a lot of the personal details of his activities were lacking. There is a very detailed and interesting history of von Neumann’s involvement in the development of the atom bomb, but this reader found similar sections about his involvement in game theory and the development of self-replicating computers to be overly dull.

In many ways, John von Neumann was a man ahead of his time. Many of the theories and concepts for applying scientific knowledge are still prominent today, in spite of the fact that von Neumann died nearly 70 years ago. I definitely learned a lot about von Neumann’s life and ideas, but would have enjoyed the book more if it involved less of the dry science aspect and more of the subject’s life and activities during the 1940s and 50s.

I gave The Man From the Future three stars on Goodreads. I ended up skimming a lot of the last half of the book because it focused so much on very specific and detailed aspects of what other scientists have done with von Neumann’s theory’s than on the man himself.

This book was available only for wishing, a practice I haven't figured out. It was a long time from when I wished to when I received, and in the meantime I had given up and read another biography of von Neuman.. I went ahead and read this one anyway, and I'm glad I did.

Be aware that this is not a biography no matter how it's billed. This is a series of long, detailed chapters on the full history of the major things von Neumann worked on, from beginning to present times (i.e., post-von-Neumann), presented in chronological order. This includes mini-biographies of other scientists and mathematicians, which can go on for many pages. This was a bit off-putting at first, as I began the boom wanting to know more about the man than what I read in the other biography, but each chapter was more interesting than the last and was fascinating in its own right. Luckily for the reader (and for the author), von Neumann's life did not follow the usual curve of early success and gradual decline. He was at the top of his game until the tragically early end, and contributed more and more until he couldn't contribute any longer.

I recommend this book for what it is: an account of some of the most interesting scientific topics of the 20th century. These include physics, war, computers, game theory, and models of artifical and biological life processes. If you want an actual biography of the man's life, you'll need to look elsewhere.