Observations placeholder
Neumann, John von - The design for a computer
Identifier
014466
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
I have put in two balancing observations and a diagram.
Keen to support science and the measurement of things in the physical Neumann constantly stressed the idea of empirical knowledge.
But then he ocasionally lets slip in a very quiet way - because letting slip this sort of remark was like saying to the inquisition you quite liked the Upanishads - that he thought that most ideas come from the spiritual - and indeed even more precise 'God'.
He was such a logical man, with a vast memory, that in general empirical ideas were all he was ever going to get, but if we look at the design for the computer, it has three basic parts - Will, Memory and Reasoning - and this was inspired; so sometimes maybe things did get through when it counted.
Input/output = perceptions
Arithmetic logic unit - Perception plus reasoning
Memory = memory
Control unit = Will
A partial model of the mind
A description of the experience
"The Mathematician", in The Works of the Mind (1947) edited by R. B. Heywood, University of Chicago Press, Chicago
I think that it is a relatively good approximation to truth — which is much too complicated to allow anything but approximations — that most mathematical ideas originate in empirics. But, once they are conceived, the subject begins to live a peculiar life of its own and is … governed by almost entirely aesthetical motivations.
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There probably is a God. Many things are easier to explain if there is than if there isn't. As quoted in John Von Neumann : The Scientific Genius Who Pioneered the Modern Computer, Game Theory, Nuclear Deterrence and Much More (1992) by Norman Macrae
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The source of the experience
Neumann, John vonConcepts, symbols and science items
Concepts
Inner speechMemory
Mind
Perception
Perceptions
Reason
Reasoning
Reasoning - heuristics and induction
Reasoning and levels of reasoning
Will