Tuesday, May 26, 2015

John Nash: Unexpected exit



John Nash (June 13, 1928 – May 23, 2015) died in a car accident 3 days ago.
Most of us probably do not know who this person was and so they don't really bother about his death.
As many as 80% of people who know him, actually know him because of the movie based on his life. "A Beautiful Mind". A very beautiful movie with famous actor "Russel Crowe" playing his character was a big hit and even won 4 Academy Awards.
But for those who knew him for his work, practically worshiped him. In spite of all the ailments he went through, he emerged as a winner providing so many beautiful theories which find regular applications in diverse fields right from economics, biology and even computer science.
One of the initial work, which actually brought him to surface was his work on Game theory. Out of his observation sitting in a bar, he initiated a theory. According to him if there is a blonde girl with brunette girls as her friends, evrey one should in the group should opt for those brunette girls, so that without any conflict, every one in the group will get a girl and everybody wins. If on the other hand, one asks blonde girl and she says yes, only one among the group wins. If she says no, other brunettes would also say no, don't wanting to be the second choice. With this example he tried to disprove his competitors theory who coined the term "every man for himself".
His life story had many ups and downs. It included his ailment where he learnt to live with hallucinations. He came over these obstacles and made a such great impact that he was awarded presetigious Nobel Prize for this work.
Very recently, just on May 19 he received another such prestigious award in Oslo, Norway.
Little did he know that an act of unnecessary overtaking by a cab driver who probably had no idea who is sitting in his cab, brought a sudden end to a beautiful journey.

John Nash was a big name in his field and it is a big loss for all of us.  I hope, his work reaches every person.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/24/us/feat-john-nash-wife-killed/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Forbes_Nash,_Jr.