John von Neumann's 1950s Change to Philosopher of Computation

TL;DR

This paper revises the historical view of John von Neumann, highlighting his 1950s shift from a logician to a natural philosopher of computation, emphasizing his physicalist perspective on algorithms and critique of mechanistic models.

Contribution

It presents a new interpretation of von Neumann's 1950s philosophical stance, linking his change to influences from modern physics and his rejection of formalist approaches.

Findings

Von Neumann criticized Hilbert's formalism and Turing machines.

He viewed algorithms as physical entities.

He expressed skepticism towards neural networks and mechanistic evolution.

Abstract

John von Neumann's transformation from a logician of quantum mechanics (QM) in the 1920s to a natural philosopher of computation in the 1950s is discussed. The paper argues for revision of the historical image of Neumann to portray his change to an anti formalist philosopher of computation. Neumann abandoned Hilbert's programme that knowledge could be expressed as logical predicates. The change is described by relating Neumann's criticism of Carnap's logicism and by discussing Neumann's rejection of the Turing Machine model of computation. Probably under the influence of the founders of modern physics in particular Wolfgang Pauli and Werner Heisenberg at the Advanced Study Institute, Neumann changed to a natural philosopher of computation. Neumann's writings from his development of the now almost universal von Neumann computer architecture are discussed to show his 1950s view of algorithms as physicalized entities. The paper concludes by quoting Neumann's statements criticizing mechanistic evolution and criticizing neural networks.