Thinking Machines: The Quest for Artificial Intelligence

[Mars, Founder Moderator]

This will be April's book for our book group.

[Bill's]

"During the Second World War, von Neumann worked on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, where one of his jobs was the terrible task of working out the precise height at which the hydrogen bomb must explode to cause maximum devastation."

Where did he get this? The Manhattan Project was working on plutonium fission. It was after the war that von Neumann was working on hydrogen bombs.

I am on the second chapter. The first 2 chapter are a poor retelling of history. Almost like he is doing a mash up from other books without really understanding what he is talking about.

I wouldn't be so upset reading about stuff that I have read about dozens of times before if he did a good job of telling the story.

[Bill's]

I finished the book. It would be ok if you are new to this topic. It starts off slow, then gets more interesting towards the end.

[Mars, Founder Moderator]

Bill wrote: ""During the Second World War, von Neumann worked on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, where one of his jobs was the terrible task of working out the precise height at which the hydrogen bomb mus..."

That's disappointing to hear that the author didn't tell the story correctly. I will keep this in mind when I read it. Thanks for your comment on that.