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约翰·冯·诺伊曼在洛斯阿拉莫斯做了什么
What John von Neumann Did at Los Alamos
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导读
这篇文章讲述冯·诺依曼在洛斯阿拉莫斯曼哈顿计划中的实际工作，包括他在爆炸流体力学计算、数值方法等方面的贡献。文章多次登上 Hacker News 首页，是了解这位传奇数学家战时工作的好材料。
为什么经久不衰：冯·诺依曼的贡献横跨数学、计算与物理，这篇文章聚焦他鲜为人知的战时工作，兼具历史价值与科学趣味，多年后仍被反复推荐。
HN 评论精选
冯·诺依曼还曾在二战前夕出力营救哥德尔逃离纳粹奥地利
我最近读了哥德尔的新传记《理性边缘之旅》，书中清楚表明冯·诺依曼在二战前夕为营救哥德尔离开奥地利发挥了关键作用。哥德尔虽非犹太人，却因与所谓'犹太科学'关系密切被维也纳大学拒绝任教，还即将被征入德军——以他的健康状况这几乎是灾难。冯·诺依曼得知后动用他在华盛顿的众多人脉施以援手，最终德国人允许哥德尔离境，他在1939年底勉强脱身，若没有冯·诺依曼的干预很可能就走不成了。
UncleOxidant查看英文原文
I recently read the new Gödel biography Journey to the Edge of Reason: The Life of Kurt Gödel and it was pretty clear that Von Neumann played a key role in getting Gödel out of Austria just prior to WWII. Gödel had been a visiting lecturer at the IAS at Princeton off and on in the 30s but probably due to his mental illness he would go back to Austria often with little notice - which didn't put him in good stead with IAS administration. In 1938 Gödel applied to teach at the University of Vienna but was turned down (Though not Jewish, he was considered to be too tied to what was labelled "Jewish science"). He was about to be conscripted into the German army which would have been a disaster given his many health problems. When Von Neumann became aware of Gödel's dire situation he lobbied his many powerful contacts in DC to come to Gödel's aid. Through diplomacy the Germans eventually allowed Gödel to leave under the condition that he would have to come back to serve in the army. He barely made it out in late '39 and probably wouldn't have without Von Neumann's intervention.
洛斯阿拉莫斯的滑雪道竟是炸药专家业余炸树开出来的
对我来说被埋没的亮点是：帕哈里托滑雪山的雪道，是一位科学家直接抓起一堆炸药炸倒树木开辟出来的——奥本海默从哈佛请来了世界顶级炸药专家基斯佳科夫斯基，他业余时间就用爆破知识在台地上炸出滑雪道，供科学家们娱乐。
inasio查看英文原文
The buried lede for me was that the slopes in the Pajarito ski mountain were created by one of the scientists just grabbing a bunch of explosives and blowing up trees: - Oppenheimer invited George Kistiakowsky from Harvard who was a world-class expert in explosives; in his spare time Kistiakowsky would use his explosives knowledge to raze trees and create ski slopes on the mesa for recreation for the scientists.
曼哈顿计划是历史偶然因素的完美汇聚，如今难以复制
我对曼哈顿计划了解越多，越确信若非这个计划，我们可能至今都没有核武器。诸多因素完美汇聚：纳粹崛起迫使顶尖知识分子逃往美国、美国倾尽全力打赢二战的巨额投入、反希特勒战争的道德正当性让学者们愿意参与，以及理论基础恰好在几十年前刚刚奠定。我不认为今天还能把上百位顶尖科学家聚在一起造超级武器。
RcouF1uZ4gsC查看英文原文
The more I read about the Manhattan Project, the more I become convinced that if it were not for the Manhattan Project, we might not have nuclear weapons even now. There were a bunch of things that came together perfectly. 1) A bunch of intellectuals of the higher caliber that could be brought into a single location. A lot of this had to do with the rise of Nazism which led to a lot of these high powered intellectuals fleeing Germany and Eastern Europe for the US. 2) A bunch of money that could be poured into the project. At that time, the USA was completely committed to using every resource it had to win WWII. 3) Convince all those intellectuals that working on creating the most destructive weapon ever was a good thing. If there was ever a "good war" in the history of the world, it was the war against Hitler. I think almost everyone in the West understood at that time that stopping Hitler was of the highest moral imperative and that massive amounts of violence was the only way to stop him. Even with all this, people like Oppenheimer had their doubts. (Of course this would end up being used, not against Hitler and the Germans but against the Japanese). 4) The theoretic foundations for all this work were just laid a few decades before. This could not have happened before then. I don't see such a convergence of factors happening afterward. I don't think you could get the top 100 leading scientists together to build a superweapon now. If it were not for the Manhattan Project, I think it is likely that we would still be living in a nuclear weapon free world. Though, if that is a good thing or a bad thing with respect to great power wars, I am uncertain.
推荐《图灵的大教堂》作为了解冯·诺依曼的补充读物
乔治·戴森的《图灵的大教堂》对冯·诺依曼等人的历史有很好的记述。
AvAn12查看英文原文
"Turing's Cathedral" by George Dyson has a nice history of von Neumann, among others.
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