Let's Eat and Talk About The Maniac

Let's eat and talk about The Maniac by Benjamin Labatut. From Goodreads: From one of contemporary literature’s most exciting new voices, a haunting story centered on the Hungarian polymath John von Neumann, tracing the impact of his singular legacy on the dreams and nightmares of the twentieth century and the nascent age of AI...A prodigy whose gifts terrified the people around him, John von Neumann transformed every field he touched, inventing game theory and the first programable computer, and pioneering AI, digital life, and cellular automata. Through a chorus of family members, friends, colleagues, and rivals, Labatut shows us the evolution of a mind unmatched and of a body of work that has unmoored the world in its wake...A work of beauty and fabulous momentum, The MANIAC confronts us with the deepest questions we face as a species.
Labatut was previously nominated for the Booker Prize for his novel When We Cease to Understand. The Maniac is about 350 pages, so not too long. Join us!