Game Theory

Game theory serves as the foundation of systematized decisionmaking and modern economics.

Indeed, Minimax game theory underlies modern economics and is responsible for countless economic insights, many of which won Nobel Prizes.

Besides game theory, von Neumann eventually modeled the lenses behind the Los Alamos plutonium nuclear bomb.

As a Jewish refugee from Europe whose home country was occupied by the Soviets, von Neumann was a vehement anti-fascist and anti-communist. Eventually, he used game theory to urge the US to destroy the Soviet Union with nuclear weapons.

“If you say why not bomb [the Soviets] tomorrow, I say, why not today? If you say today at five o’clock, I say why not one o’clock?”

John von Neumann, 1950

Like many involved in early nuclear work, von Neumann died young, from cancer, at 53.