'A Beautiful Mind' John Nash and Wife Killed in NJ Taxi Crash

Have you seen the movie 'A Beautiful Mind'?? It was a really good movie and the subject matter was fascinating. The person who the movie was written about died yesterday in a horrific car accident on the Jersey Turnpike. So did his wife. Neither was wearing a seat belt and were ejected from the crash.

Turns out we were there just after it happened. It was a horrible crash. The taxi they were riding in burned out. The Jersey turnpike South bound had to close one whole side (it splits in two - cars on one side and cars/trucks on the other).

I know the movie didn't get into all aspects of Nash's life, but the part it did tackle was very interesting. That someone could continue with life so successfully with all that going on in their mind was amazing.

Yahoo News

Princeton University mathematician and Nobel Prize winner John Nash, whose life was the subject of the film "A Beautiful Mind," was killed in a taxi crash along with his wife in New Jersey on Saturday.

Nash and Alicia Nash were in a taxi on the New Jersey Turnpike when the driver lost control and crashed into a guard rail, said New Jersey State Police Sgt. Gregory Williams. Nash was 86; his wife was 82.

John Nash Information

John Forbes Nash, Jr. (June 13, 1928 — May 23, 2015) was an American mathematician whose works in game theory, differential geometry, and partial differential equations have provided insight into the factors that govern chance and events inside complex systems in daily life.

His theories are used in economics, computing, evolutionary biology, artificial intelligence, accounting, politics and military theory. Serving as a Senior Research Mathematician at Princeton University during the latter part of his life, he shared the 1994 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with game theorists Reinhard Selten and John Harsanyi. In 2015, he was awarded the Abel Prize (along with Louis Nirenberg) for his work on nonlinear partial differential equations.

Nash is the subject of Sylvia Nasar's biography A Beautiful Mind, and the film based on it, which focuses on Nash's mathematical genius and his schizophrenia.

Nash was a Nobel Prize winner (which used to mean something) and had a brilliant way of looking at things, even though he was also intensely paranoid schizophrenic with vivid auditory and visual hallucinations. What I take away from his story is that, although he had what is by all accounts a severe case of mental illness, he was able to get beyond it, take his meds (although not without side effects), and get on with his life. I am amazed that he lived as long as he did. There are so many schizophrenics and schizoaffectives I work with that think they cannot accomplish anything, although most of them are quite intelligent, and our center uses John Nash as an example of somebody who not only lived with his illness, but thrived despite it.

I hope his passing was quick and merciful.

originally posted by: FissionSurplus
I hope his passing was quick and merciful.

Being ejected from the vehicle I'd think it probably was quick.
We saw the accident and the taxi they were in right after it happened.
It was a mess. But the taxi driver survived.
(which I think is a miracle ... seriously, it was a horrific crash).

a reply to: FlyersFan
Damn shame-are there usually seatbelts in taxis over there?
There really should be these days,as they are so often the difference between survival and death in a car crash.

RIP

I wonder what kind of scary useful nugget he was holding onto or just solved...?

Aw man, Ioved that movie... Why couldn't it have been Russel Crowe instead?? Ah, well, whenever someone dies, I just think to myself "good, now they won't have to be here for what is to come..."

a reply to: FlyersFan

I think I remember seeing the movie but I'm not sure. Did it have a guy that thought he was working for a government agency and he kept putting things in a mail box?
Anyway, too bad about them being killed. I'm glad that you didn't go through the area earlier. You could have been involved.

Have any of you ever read the book? The movie was great but it changed the nature of his hallucinations completely in order to keep audiences in suspense of "is it real?" or "isn't it?" In real life, Nash was hallucinating secret codes talking about an alien invasion of earth. He was even trying to contact governments to warn them of an alien invasion. I wonder if he was tapping into our modern mythologies ala' Jacques_Vallée. Quite different from the more humdrum code breaking in the movie. I urge anyone who enjoyed the movie to read the book.

Condolences to his (and hers) friends and family. I hope they may find peace amongst such an unexpected tragedy.He was a brilliant man who contributed greatly to the sciences.

I have paranoid schizophrenia so I know what he went through. Medications in 60's and 70's were horrible stuff and they still use them under certain circumstances today. I was given Haldol and Thorazine when I was hospitalized in the 90's. It was like an injection of Novocain to the brain. My mind was completely numb it was like a frontal lobotomy in medication form. I actually drooled on myself because of it. I couldn't follow or participate in conversations. I slept 23 hours a day for over a month. The only time I got up was to eat.

Psychosis from schizophrenia is a horrible ordeal. Your own mind turns against you with hallucinations and delusions. You don't know whats real and whats not. Having constant fear and dread that everyone is out to get you. It's like a living nightmare of fear and dread.

If it weren't for modern medications I would have ate a bullet a long time ago. I couldn't go through life in that state I would have called it quits.

Like Nash I was gifted also in math and science. My IQ tests from when I was a kid showed I had a near photographic memory. When I came down with schizophrenia at age 19 I lost it all. After my psychosis I had to realearn how to communicate with people all over again.

I was so far gone my prognoses in my hospital report was very poor. The doctors told my mom I might have to be institutionalized for life.

I admire Mr Nash's ability to persevere and live with this illness. I also admire his wife for sticking it through with him. I hope he is finally at rest.

originally posted by: AudioOne
Have any of you ever read the book?

I haven't read the book but now that you bring it up, I'll add it to my reading list. I didn't remember about the hallucinations of alien invasion. I'll have to read the book and learn more.

There's often a fine line between genius and madness

The things he gave us out of his mind with the mental illness.....wonder how far he could have went without it. Hope it was quick and merciful. My wife who is a number nut....said the man was one of a kind in the field of higher math. Brilliant was her words.

a reply to: FlyersFan

There's a beautiful irony that he died as a statistical example of the rate of attrition on highways.

Game theory has been used to conceptualise traffic flow and safety for a few years.

Traffic congestion is an issue in every major city. Among many approaches the game theory has presented feasible solutions. In this paper, a noncooperative approach which gives rise to a noncooperative game is studied, we propose to model signalized intersections as finite controlled Markov chains and a solution to optimize the congestion into an avenue. Each intersection is seen as noncooperative game where each player try to minimize its queue

link

terrible way to do for anyone but the dude was 86. it was coming anyway.
still a bummer
one of my favorite mathematicians

a reply to: Mugly

Really?

originally posted by: Galadriel
a reply to: Mugly

Really?

i dont understand.
so i will go with yes. really


would have been much more of a bummer if he was 26. you know the story. he had his whole life ahead of him situation.
nash had his whole life behind him.
still sucks though.

a reply to: TrappedPrincess

If he WAS Satoshi it would be highly likely he would have Satoshi's keys memorised.
That would be the best part of 360 million USD's of BTC instantly safe/lost.

2 people not wearing seatbelts in a taxi and one studies game theory sounds like the first line of a bad joke at a math conference.

a reply to: FlyersFan

Wow, Just wow.

I suppose we all have to go someway someday.

Sad.

a reply to: Jukiodone

Playing in a house of cards can be dangerous if you are Schizophrenic.

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