Goya hinted long ago that the mind’s dreams can birth monsters. Drawing on the insights of the most acclaimed thinker of the 20th century, John von Neumann, a versatile scientist of Hungarian heritage, the text suggests that scientific inquiry pushed beyond ethical boundaries can unleash the worst fears of humanity. Benjamín Labatut, the striking author of the unsettling work Un verdor, born in Rotterdam in 1980 and raised in Chile, correctly imagined a strong link between the scientific breakthroughs of the early 20th century and the dangerous edge on which human progress now teeters. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, the Cold War’s grim aftermath, and today’s fervent circles of celebrated technologists and wealth-driven programmers and entrepreneurs who push toward a singularity all threaten to reframe civilization in ways few can imagine.
This novel, at first glance a demanding read, is in truth a careful reconstruction of the first strides of a process that has since accelerated before our eyes. Von Neumann and the physicists and mathematicians of the early 20th century laid down the foundations and the human ingenuity that would fuel the nuclear race, a force of global suspicion and peril for decades. Deterrence theory, the belief that balance rests on accumulating destructive power, grows from game theory. Human reasoning helped forge some of the Cold War’s boldest and most perilous strategic choices. Maniac is about extraordinary minds who push the frontiers of physics, logic, and mathematics to their limits, shaping the world as we know it—whether knowingly or not, consciously or not. If Clemenceau showed in World War I that war is too consequential to be left to soldiers alone, World War II made clear that science, discoveries, and ongoing research now steer history. Their concerns and moral questions, their conscience and emotional ties to the world around them, surface in this narrative.
Labatut crafts a vivid recreation around the undeniable figure of von Neumann. Through the voices of his family, friends, and colleagues, the book builds a compelling portrait of the genius and the monsters his extraordinary intellect could unleash. Von Neumann emerges as a force of nature—an immense, even spectacular, mind capable of tackling any scientific challenge. Yet the portrayal emphasizes not just the achievements but the persona, the self-regard, and the public demonstrations of talent that overshadow the consequences of his theoretical breakthroughs.
At moments, the book feels like a bridge to contemporary cinematic storytelling. Following von Neumann’s life and ventures—his scientific virtues, political milestones, and the personal tolls on family and friends—a constellation of figures appears to offer alternate viewpoints. Ehrenfest, Gödel, Einstein, Hilbert, Wigner, Heisenberg, von Neumann’s sisters and partners, Feynman, Bigelow, Brenner—each voice adds a fresh angle. Together they illuminate the anxieties that swirl around any project as rigid as the first nuclear device and the later rise of computer simulation. Today, artificial intelligence provokes deep concern among administrators and citizens who hide behind the convenient label of “progress.”
In this sense, the work of Wigner links those moments to the present, noting that the drivers behind these weapons were the irresistible thrill of scientific discovery and a sense they were exploring what they did not even know could exist. Von Neumann’s late interest in religious questions and the human impulse toward immortality helps explain the modern preoccupation among a handful of ambitious AI developers who push the envelope of what humans can be. It is not surprising that as his life neared its end in 1958, he warned that the empty space left by the gods could only be filled by technology. The story of this man is the story of moral clarity arriving late, as he confronted his own mortality. Labatut presents this with a transparent and confident mastery, showing how deeply the subject matter resonates with today’s technological anxieties.