title: John von Neumann and Norbert Wiener: From Mathematics to the Technologies of Life and Death
author: Steve Joshua Heims
description: &quot;The stuff of Heims' study&mdash;a pair of child prodigies, mathematical geniuses, eccentrics, Jews, academic heavyweights, cultural powers&mdash;is almost too good to be true. Wiener and von Neumann were legends in their lifetimes, men whose paths often crossed and whose mutual affection and respect persisted, even when political views separated them in later years...provocative and fascinating.&quot;<br /> &mdash;<i>Kirkus Reviews</i><br /><br />&quot;A joint biography of two of the intellectual giants of the 20th century.... Heims captures the tension of the Manhattan Project...and continues with the story of the nuclear weapons race of the early 1950s, which he views as inhuman. He also seeks to define the social function of scientists.&quot;<br /> &mdash;<i>Library Journal</i>
zlib_text: Nobody Here but”
  
  
  
  
  
  Copyright Š 1953 by Ballantine Books, Inc.
  
  
  
  
  
  You see, it wasn’t our fault. We had no idea anything was wrong until I called
  Cliff Anderson and spoke to him when he wasn’t there. What’s more, I wouldn’t
  have known he wasn’t there, if it wasn’t that he walked in while I was talking
  to him.
  
  
  No, no, no, no
  
  
  I never seem to be able to tell this straight. I get too excited. Look, I
  might as well begin at the beginning. I’m Bill Billings; my friend is Cliff
  Anderson. I’m an electrical engineer, he’s a mathematician, and we’re on the
  faculty of Midwestern Institute of Technology. Now you know who we are.
  
  
  Ever since we got out of uniform, Cliff and I have been working on calculating
  machines. You know what they are. Norbert Wiener popularized them in his book,
  Cybernetics. If you’ve seen pictures of them, you know that they’re great big
  things. They take up a whole wall and they’re very complicated; also
  expensive.
  
  
  But Cliff and I had ideas. You see, what mak