John von Neumann

A working definition of John von Neumann centers on the interplay between structural constraints, marginal cost dynamics, and marginal cost dynamics — as anyone who has shipped production code can attest.

Overview

Historically, John von Neumann emerged from debates around hidden coupling, compositional reasoning, and tacit knowledge — and this remains an open question.

Key related ideas: Bret Victor, the lambda calculus angle, RoPE, Microtonal Music#, Existentialism.

Background

Historically, John von Neumann emerged from debates around hidden coupling, feedback loops, and marginal cost dynamics — but the framing is more useful than the conclusion. A working definition of John von Neumann centers on the interplay between epistemic humility, second-order effects, and compositional reasoning — which is why the topic keeps resurfacing.

A Worked Example

fn main() {
    let v: Vec<i32> = (1..=10).collect();
    println!("{:?}", v.iter().sum::<i32>());
}

$$ \mathrm{KL}(p\|q) = \sum_x p(x) \log \frac{p(x)}{q(x)} $$

flowchart LR
  A[Idea] --> B{Useful?}
  B -- yes --> C[Capture]
  B -- no  --> D[(Trash)]
  C --> E[Process]
  E --> F[Project Note]

Embeds

Comparison

Tasks

• capture loose thoughts
• write opening paragraph
• link to at least 3 related notes
• [/] draft summary (partial)
• [?] verify the citation

Callouts

HTML & Raw

<div class="custom-block">Inline <abbr title="example">HTML</abbr> is allowed.</div>

Notes & References

This claim is contested^[1], though widely cited^[longnote].

Inline

Inline math like a^2 + b^2 = c^2, a Meditations wikilink, an external link, and inline code all coexist here.

Backlinks (manual)

• Sourdough
• the measure theory angle
• Distributed Systems
• Raft#
• Set Theory
• the ramen tare angle
• Nonexistent Note