MANIAC

What led AI to victory over humans? A shocking novel about the dark side of science.

In his new book, Chilean writer Benjamín Labatut continues developing the ideas from his acclaimed novel “When We Stopped Understanding the World”—the bestseller about the grim aspects of great scientific achievements—returning once again to the symbiosis of nonfiction and fiction.

The centerpiece of the author’s narrative is the biography of mathematical prodigy John von Neumann, a participant in the Manhattan Project and the architect of the computing-machine framework on which one of the first computers—MANIAC—was built.

The story of von Neumann is preceded by an account of the tragic fate of Paul Ehrenfest, and the final chapters focus on the fateful го (Go) tournament between Lee Sedol and the AlphaGo program.

A chain of contradictory events from the world of science—from the creation of the hydrogen bomb to the birth of supercomputers—astonishing some and terrifying others. It culminates in the stunning victory of artificial intelligence over man, forcing readers to think about where technology has brought us—and where it will take us.