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The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan Paperback – Illustrated, April 26, 2016
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A moving and enlightening look at the unbelievable true story of how gifted prodigy Ramanujan stunned the scholars of Cambridge University and revolutionized mathematics.
In 1913, a young unschooled Indian clerk wrote a letter to G H Hardy, begging the preeminent English mathematician's opinion on several ideas he had about numbers. Realizing the letter was the work of a genius, Hardy arranged for Srinivasa Ramanujan to come to England.
Thus began one of the most improbable and productive collaborations ever chronicled. With a passion for rich and evocative detail, Robert Kanigel takes us from the temples and slums of Madras to the courts and chapels of Cambridge University, where the devout Hindu Ramanujan, "the Prince of Intuition," tested his brilliant theories alongside the sophisticated and eccentric Hardy, "the Apostle of Proof."
In time, Ramanujan's creative intensity took its toll: he died at the age of thirty-two, but left behind a magical and inspired legacy that is still being plumbed for its secrets today.
- Print length464 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateApril 26, 2016
- Dimensions5.31 x 1.3 x 8.25 inches
- ISBN-101476763496
- ISBN-13978-1476763491
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- Publisher : Atria Books; Media Tie-In edition (April 26, 2016)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 464 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1476763496
- ISBN-13 : 978-1476763491
- Item Weight : 14.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.31 x 1.3 x 8.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #75,946 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #36 in Mathematics History
- #39 in Educator Biographies
- #195 in Scientist Biographies
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Robert Kanigel is the author of nine previous books, most recently "Hearing Homer's Song: The Brief Life and Big Idea of Milman Parry." His "Eyes on the Street: The Life of Jane Jacobs" was long-listed for the 2017 Andrew Carnegie Medal for nonfiction and named an NPR best book of the year. He has been the recipient of numerous awards, including a Guggenheim fellowship, the Grady-Stack Award for science writing and, for his Milman Parry biography, a Public Scholar grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. His book "The Man Who Knew Infinity" was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and named a New York Public Library "Book to Remember"; it has been translated into more than a dozen languages, and was the basis for the film of the same name starring Jeremy Irons and Dev Patel. .Kanigel and his wife, the poet S. B. Merrow, live in Baltimore. His first memoir, "Young Man, Muddled," was published in late 2022. [robertkanigel.com]
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This is a fascinating book, as recognized by the many reviews. But I suggest a different perspective, namely the challenge posed by the mind of Srinivasa RAMANUJAN to the idea of “super-intelligent robots” which is at the core of what is appropriately called by Ray Kurzweil “Spiritual Machines” and “Singularity.”
Ramanujan was more that one of the few persons recognized as “geniuses.” He was a super-genius, “a man who grew up praying to stone deities; who for most of his life took counsel from a family goddess, declaring it was she to whom his mathematical insights were owed; whose theorems would, at intellectually backbreaking cost, be proved true—yet leave mathematicians baffled that anyone could divine them in the first place” (p. 4).
All mathematical creativity depends on inspiration and imagination, followed by strict proof. However the mental processes resulting in the radical breakthroughs of Ramanujan, despite his social circumstances and lack of minimal education, are on an unequalled level. This outstanding biography does not even try to explain them, nor do the top mathematicians with whom Ramanujan worked at Cambridge and who continue to draw radically novel ideas from his handwritten notebooks.
This brings me to current efforts to spawn robots with artificial general intelligence and, beyond them, robots with super-intelligence. But the phenomenon of Ramanujan (and a few other geniuses) is not only beyond the scales of intelligence, but above the concept of “intelligence” itself. No enhancement of human intelligence opens a door to becoming a Ramanujan; and no algorithm is likely to produce robots with the abilities of Ramanujan. This would require more than super-intelligence namely a quantum leap into what we do not understand and cannot even conceptualize.
Artificial intelligence experts will probably respond that progress will be in steps: a somewhat super-intelligence entity will develop a more super-intelligent entity and so on, till “minds” of the quality of Ramanujan are understood, achieved and surpassed. But this is a weak hypothesis as long as the mind of Ramanujan remains totally a black box.
Thus Ramanujan posed a critical riddle to the idea of super-intelligent robots, whether with biological or mechanical substrata. Therefore, studying this book and pondering the challenge its subject presents is strongly recommended to philosophers, scientists and technologists working on advanced artificial intelligence and the Singularity hypothesis as a whole.
Professor Yehezkel Dror
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Publication of many joint papers resulted in Ramanujan's election to the Royal Society.
Unfortunately he had by this time contracted tuberculosis and he died in 1920 shortly after his return to India. Even today Ramanujan's theorems are still being studied and he is ranked among the world's greatest mathematical thinkers hence the book's subtitle.
This book not only provides a valuable insight into a great mind but it also gives us a penetrating glimpse of the culture of Southern India in the early 20th century.
The contrast between Hardy's British public(i.e. private) school background and Ramanujan's Indian schooling makes the collaboration between the two even more interesting.
This is a fascinating read that leads one to speculate how many more similar sparks of genius remain undiscovered.
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Reviewed in India on July 16, 2023
Foi com essa ideia que eu adquiri esse livro e, ao longo da leitura, fui notando que além de um dom existiu muito trabalho, problemas , dificuldades no caminho de Ramanujan. E é exatamente esse lado da estória que faz com que qualquer um se identifique com Ramanujan e é isso que torna a leitura tão agradável.