John Forbes Nash Jr

A mathematical genius with a legendary life and a winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics. His legendary life experience can be found in A Beautiful Mind adapted from Sylvia Naisha's biography.

childhood

1June, 928 13 was born in bloomfield, West Virginia. Like all gifted children, Nash is a withdrawn child who is obsessed with doing all kinds of experiments all day. His father is an electronic engineer and always answers Nash's questions. Nash's favorite gift, Compton Illustrated Encyclopedia, also came from his father. His sister Martha recalled her childhood and said, "When I go out with my friends, I always take on the task of taking care of my younger brother. But I don't think it will make my eccentric brother easier to get along with. "

The teacher's discovery

His teacher didn't notice the excellence of his students. On the contrary, they don't like Nash's unsociable, capricious personality and disrespect for authority. When he was young, Nash was always the object of ridicule and teasing, because he was not interested in group activities and was not good at socializing. His strange behavior attracted everyone's attention.

With the growth of age, this "know-it-all"-the so-called Nash-is getting bigger and stronger. His sharp remarks are respected by people around him. There is no doubt that he thinks he is a genius who is superior to others, and he disdains people who he thinks are inferior to him.

college days

When Nash was studying at Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie University), a professor called Nash "Gauss Second" to describe students' mathematical ability. Nash came to Carnegie Institute of Technology to become an engineer, but in the end he became a mathematician in this school.

His classmates think that he is a person with extremely underdeveloped social skills. Withdrawn, eccentric, distant. But no one dared to confront Nash. Everyone is not only afraid of his bad temper, but also afraid of his strength. Similar to his extraordinary intelligence, Nash also has a good physical quality.

Failure in life

1March, 947, Nash suffered the first major failure in his life. He took part in the local William Lowell Putnam Mathematics Competition. This is a math contest for college students, and it is also considered as a good opportunity to make your name appear in the field of mathematics. But Nash lost the game. He didn't make it into the top five. For a future mathematician, this is a complete failure.

1948, Nash graduated from the Department of Mathematics and got the opportunity to go to Harvard, Princeton, Chicago and Michigan for further study. Nash himself yearned for Harvard. However, due to his failure in Putnam Mathematics Competition (at least Nash always thought so), Harvard offered Nash the least scholarship in the university. Finally, Nash came to Princeton University with the sentence "This student is a genius" in the recommendation letter.

environment

Princeton's environment is perfect for Nash. In this small town where 1933 established a university town, many famous scientific masters gathered: Robert Oppenheimer, Einstein, von Neumann, Norman Sting Rhodes ... 1948, Nash came to this small town full of Gothic buildings and went to the red brick building of the Department of Mathematics to study for his doctorate. At that time, the director of the Department of Mathematics was a Russian immigrant from Lefschetz, who lost his hands and forearms in an accident.

Lefschetz encourages students to think independently. At that time, people commented on Nash: "The sky is not enough to accommodate his independence." In this school, the only course that students must attend is afternoon tea at three o'clock every afternoon. There, professors and students discuss mathematics, tell jokes about mathematics and talk about all kinds of latest mathematical research results, and evaluate each student's ability in this way. It is not easy to get a degree from this school: you must succeed or be eliminated.

In such an environment that encourages thinking and whimsy and is regarded as a symbol of genius, Nash's spirit began to dance freely. He is interested in all subjects and uses afternoon tea to fully show himself: no one can ignore his existence. He even visited Einstein and told him what he thought of gravity. After an hour of discussion, Einstein said to Nash, "Young man, you should come and learn some physics."

Nash, the most dazzling mathematician, didn't follow his advice. He thinks that only by studying mathematics can he rediscover himself. From 65438 to 0949, Nash began to study the game theory, which was considered as ugly by people in the mathematics field at that time. The founder of game theory is American mathematician john von neumann. 1944, the publication of Game Theory and Economic Behavior co-authored by Neumann and Morgenstein marked the birth of modern system game theory. According to Neumann and Morgenstein, economy is a completely scientific behavior, which needs to be regulated by mathematical theory.

matter of principle

Nash's principle is to ask questions correctly and then find the only solution. His first scientific research achievement is game theory mathematics, which is a milestone of modern economics. 1950, Nash published his doctoral thesis "non-cooperative game", and put forward the opposite view to Neumann's cooperative game theory. Nash introduced the famous "Nash equilibrium" theory in his paper, and made a mathematical analysis of the confrontation between competitors with mixed interests. Nash put forward his theory to Neumann, but it was simply regarded as "a new translation method to perfect the theorem". But this time, Neumann was all wet. Nash's non-cooperative game theory not only laid the mathematical foundation of game theory, but also was widely used by business strategists.

From 65438 to 0950, Nash entered the Rand Institute, a strategic research institution of the Central Intelligence Agency in Santa Monica, and hired mathematicians to promote the game theory in the Cold War era. In the Rand Institute, where military purpose and scientific behavior are mixed, Nash's unique talent and behavior have not attracted enough attention from the upper level. This autumn, Nash returned to Princeton, determined to devote all his energy to pure mathematics research. Nash needs to prove his genius, and he doesn't want game theory to become insignificant in people's eyes. So he proved a geometric theorem that was almost impossible to prove. Won the unanimous respect of colleagues. In the next few years, Nash continued to work at Princeton and the Rand Institute.

But Nash's greatest contribution to science was when he worked at MIT from 65438 to 0952. A colleague stimulated him and said, "Since you are so smart, why can't you solve the variable problem?" Six years later, Nash solved this problem, and he even mastered some important results about water surface fragmentation, atomic motion and seismic activity equations. Nash was named the most dazzling new mathematician by Fortune magazine.

Over the years, Nash's personal life has been very calm. 1954, Nash lost his job in Rand because the police found and arrested him when they searched for homosexuals in the park. At that time, Nash kept in touch with several "special friends". But Nash is not only gay, but also bisexual. His relationship with a beautiful woman named Eleanor Steele shows the dark and cruel side of Nash's character.

love

Eleanor fell in love with this charming and dazzling MIT teacher, but Nash looked down on the girl. He called her an idiot and often made her feel inferior. After Eleanor got pregnant, she thought Nash would marry her, but her hopes finally fell through. When their son, John David Stiehl, was born, Nash was fascinated by the child for a while, but refused to let him take his surname and resolutely refused to pay for the delivery. At home, Nash ignored the mother and son, and Eleanor had no choice but to leave. But the relationship between Nash and Eleanor, sometimes sweet and sometimes cold, lasted for four years.

For women, Nash's charm is irresistible. After the relationship with Eleanor ended, Nash started dating a female student named Alicia Lald. The love between them is the mutual attraction of gender and intelligence. They got married on 1957. At this time, Alicia was looking forward to having a baby, and Nash began to work hard for the Nobel Prize in Economics.

Become a professor

However, just as Nash was 30 years old and about to become a senior professor at MIT, a terrible problem appeared in his brain. The doctor diagnosed Nash as paranoid schizophrenia. One morning, Nash came into the office with a copy of The New York Times and told the air that the article on the left side of the front page of the newspaper contained a digital message from another planet, which only he could decipher. At home, Nash kept threatening Alicia. In the end, Nash's family and friends decided to send him to the hospital for treatment, but they tried to avoid receiving treatment that hurt Nash's brain.

Nash's condition alternates between improvement and recurrence. Alicia tried her best, and Nash, with the encouragement of his beloved wife, fought tenaciously against the disease. The genius spent the next few decades in hospitals, medicine, loneliness and mathematical research. Even under the weight of illness, Nash was still driven by his exciting number theory. During this difficult period, Nash's name began to appear frequently in various places: papers on economic and biological evolution, scientific and political theories and mathematical discoveries were fruitful. Absolutely through willpower, he continued to work as usual and won the Nobel Prize with 1994.