This is the classic work upon which modern-day game theory is based. What began more than sixty years ago as a modest proposal that a mathematician and an economist write a short paper together blossomed, in 1944, when Princeton University Press published
. In it, John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern conceived a groundbreaking mathematical theory of economic and social organization, based on a theory of games of strategy. Not only would this revolutionize economics, but the entirely new field of scientific inquiry it yielded--game theory--has since been widely used to analyze a host of real-world phenomena from arms races to optimal policy choices of presidential candidates, from vaccination policy to major league baseball salary negotiations. And it is today established throughout both the social sciences and a wide range of other sciences.
This sixtieth anniversary edition includes not only the original text but also an introduction by Harold Kuhn, an afterword by Ariel Rubinstein, and reviews and articles on the book that appeared at the time of its original publication in the
, tthe
, and a variety of other publications. Together, these writings provide readers a matchless opportunity to more fully appreciate a work whose influence will yet resound for generations to come.

Drawing on a wealth of new archival material, including personal correspondence and diaries, Robert Leonard tells the fascinating story of the creation of game theory by Hungarian Jewish mathematician John von Neumann and Austrian economist Oskar Morgenstern. Game theory first emerged amid discussions of the psychology and mathematics of chess in Germany and fin-de-siecle Austro-Hungary. In the 1930s, on the cusp of anti-Semitism and political upheaval, it was developed by von Neumann into an ambitious theory of social organization. It was shaped still further by its use in combat analysis in World War II and during the Cold War. Interweaving accounts of the period's economics, science, and mathematics, and drawing sensitively on the private lives of von Neumann and Morgenstern, Robert Leonard provides a detailed reconstruction of a complex historical drama.

First published in 1958, John von Neumann's classic work "The Computer and the Brain" explored the analogies between computing machines and the living human brain. Von Neumann showed that the brain operates both digitally and analogically, but also has its own unique statistical language. And more than fifty years after its inception the "von Neumann architecture" - an organizational framework for computer design - still lies at the heart of today's machines. In his foreword to this new edition, Ray Kurzweil, a futurist famous for his own musings on the relationship between technology and consciousness, places von Neumann's work in a historical context and shows how it remains relevant today.

From the Back Cover
Es gibt einige Bücher, die die naturwissenschaftliche Welt verändert haben: John von Neumanns Buch über die Quantenmechanik gehört dazu! Mit dieser richtungsweisenden Studie legte er den Grundstein für seine späteren, weltberühmten Arbeiten in den USA. Das Buch ist nicht nur von historischem Interesse, sondern kann immer noch als elementare Einführung in die Grundbegiffe der Quantenmechanik mit Gewinn studiert werden. Seine besondere Stärke ist die Verbindung zwischen physikalischer Idee und mathematischer Exaktheit. Ein Gewinn für jeden Leser aus den Bereichen Mathematik und Physik - schon ab dem 4. Semester.