Dyson on why von Neumann's 1932 'Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics' left physicists unmoved
tak3sh8 · x · 2026-09-15
Freeman Dyson, in his essay "Birds and Frogs," reflected on why von Neumann's groundbreaking 1932 Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics — which gave quantum theory its rigorous Hilbert-space formulation — had little impact on mainstream physicists, summed up by the line: "For the physicists, Johnny did not exist."
More from Fun
- 'Adopt a Daddy': the case for reverse mentorship goes viral on X — heyneighbor · 2026-09-15
- Claude cracks two 370-year-old ciphers in 44 minutes with zero human help — 新智元 · 2026-09-15
- One-line prompt makes an AI build "the cutest little game" with zero follow-up questions — paraschopra · 2026-09-15
- ThePrimeagen passes the 'son approval benchmark' after his kid's soccer team finds his YouTube — CtrlAltDwayne · 2026-09-15
- Astra autonomously builds a slide from files on his computer — 'Definitely AGI' — arthurcolle · 2026-09-15
- Watch 4 LLMs Play Magic: The Gathering Commander Against Each Other — New_Alps_5655 · 2026-09-15