// NATURE NEWS — SPAZIO & SCIENZA
Von Neumann’s party
Jeffrey Dennis Martin is a writer and philosopher in San Francisco. jeffreydennismartin.com
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A queue of men and women, techies and academics, moved inch by inch down a corridor towards a large door.
The polite but insistent young woman stood with her pad, dressed smartly. Slacks. White shirt. Close-cropped brown hair. Earrings. A friendly smile.
We shuffled forwards. Other similarly cheerful young women worked the queue.
I started to walk away but she grasped my arm firmly, her grip like a vice.
I looked down the corridor in the direction I thought I’d come. The queue — a mile long. A game? Prisoner’s dilemma? Lowest unique number?
Princeton. 1940s to 1950s. Institute for Advanced Studies. Veblen, Einstein, Gödel, Morgenstern, Oppenheimer … Wild parties hosted by Goodtime Johnny. Old German music! Piefke’s Preußens Gloria and Königgrätzer March charging into your brain, swords at the ready, like a mounted cavalry. The gourmet food! Alcohol straight from Palmer Square. Gossip. Filthy jokes!
Am I dreaming? I remembered an office park with pleasant trees. Route 1, Princeton? Boston? SF?
“Maybe we stop for today and begin again tomorrow.”