Comment by lwarfield
8 hours ago
Von Nuemann is one of those names that when ever it comes up I sarcastically mentally note "John f***ing Neumann, AGAIN!". It's happened so many times in my studies that I think he might be the most important scientist to have ever lived.
He's also the inspiration for one of favorite characters in fiction, Sherkaner Underhill from A Deepness In The Sky*. :)
> He's also the inspiration for one of favorite characters in fiction, Sherkaner Underhill from A Deepness In The Sky.
Oh, hell-- that totally makes sense and I completely missed it until now. Thanks for mentioning that-- it adds some additional depth to a book and a character I already enjoy a ton.
Do you have inside info about that inspiration? At one point a human character monitoring from space thinks Underhill seems like several Dawn Age geniuses rolled into one and thinks he must be a figurehead for a collective (iirc). But that's a bit different from the author taking off mainly from him. vN isn't mainly known as a font of crazy ideas -- more like supremely fast & precise intellect.
Also for Doctor Strangelove.
Dr. Strangelove was mostly inspired by Werner von Braun (according to Peter Sellers). Clearly there are bits of many other people in that characterization, not just one.
I wouldn't be surprised if he's at least partially an inspiration for the Dr. Felix Hoenikker character in Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle.
Vonnegut's inspiration was Nobel prize winner Irving Langmuir [1], apparently.
In my opinion, Hoenikker is just too amoral and aloof to really match any one of the Manhattan Project scientists. Teller (who suggested using atomic weapons to excavate harbours) and Fermi (who before the Trinity test took bets on whether the bomb would light the atmosphere on fire) are maybe the closest contenders.
[1] https://gizmodo.com/the-real-life-scientist-who-inspired-kur...