Edward Teller believed that “if a mentally superhuman race ever develops, its members will resemble Johnny von Neumann,” crediting an inexplicable “neural superconductivity,” and adding that “if you enjoy thinking, your brain develops. And that is what von Neumann did. He enjoyed the functioning of his brain.”19 If there wasn’t anything to puzzle over, his attention wandered off. According to Herman Goldstine, “nothing was ever so complete as the indifference with which Johnny could listen to a topic or paper that he did not want to hear.”
