諾貝爾獎得主的人生故事激發了《美麗心靈》

John Nash in 1994, the year he won the Nobel in economic sciences. (Charles Rex Arbogast/AP)By Emily Langer May 24 Follow @emilylangerWP

1994年的約翰·納什，這年他獲得了諾貝爾經濟學獎。(查爾斯·雷克斯·阿伯加斯特/美聯社)

艾米麗·蘭格·梅，5月24日，Follow @emilylangerWP

John F. Nash Jr., who revolutionized the mathematical field of Game theory, was endowed with a mind that was highly original and deeply troubled. But it became known to most people by Hollywood's description. His mind was beautiful.

小約翰福布斯路納什，這個徹底改變了博弈論數學領域的人，具有高度原創和深刻焦慮的頭腦。但這爲大多數人知曉 卻是因爲好萊塢的描述，他的心靈是美麗的。

Dr. Nash, a Nobel Prize-winning mathematician whose descent into and recovery from mental illness inspir ed the Academy Award-winning film "A Beautiful Mind, died May 23 in a two-car accident on the New Jersi Turnpike. He was 86. His wife, Alicia, who was 82, also died.

獲得諾貝爾獎的數學家納什博士曾經深陷精神疾病而又從中康復，激發了奧斯卡獲獎影片“美麗心靈”。他死於5月23日在新澤西收費公路的兩車相撞,享年86歲。他82歲的妻子艾麗西亞也死了。

According to preliminary findings by the New Jersey State Police, the Nashes were in a taxicab traveling southbound near Monroe when their driver lost control of the vehicle. The taxi driver's injuries were not considered life-threatening, New Jersey police said. The Nashes lived in Princeton Junction, N.J.

根據新澤西州警方的初步調查結果，當司機失去對車輛的控制時，納什夫婦正在門羅鎮附近南行的出租車內。出租車司機的傷勢沒有危及生命，新澤西州警方說。納什夫婦住在新澤西州的普林斯頓中轉站。

In 1994, when Dr. Nash received the Nobel Prize in economic sciences, the award marked not only an intellectual triumph but also a personal one. More than four decades earlier, as a Princeton University graduate student, he had produced a 27-page thesis on game theory — in essence, the applied mathematical study of decision-making in situations of conflict — that would become one of the most celebrated works in the field.

1994年，納什博士獲得了諾貝爾經濟科學獎，該獎項不僅標誌着知識的勝利，而且也是個人的勝利。40多年前，作爲普林斯頓大學的研究生，他寫了一篇27頁的博弈論論文 - 從本質上講，這是一項在衝突情形下做決策的應用數學研究 - 將要成爲本領域內最傑出的作品之一。

Before the academic world could fully recognize his achievement, Dr. Nash descended into a condition eventually diagnosed as schizophrenia. For the better part of 20 years, his once supremely rational mind was beset by delusions and hallucinations.

在學術界充分認識他的成就之前，納什博士陷入了最終被確診爲精神分裂症的困境。在20年的大部分時間裏，他曾經無比理性的頭腦被妄想和幻覺困擾。

By the time Dr. Nash emerged from his disturbed state, his ideas had influenced economics, foreign affairs, politics, biology — virtually every sphere of life fueled by competition. But he had been absent from professional life for so long that some scholars assumed he was dead.

在納什博士出現精神紊亂狀態時，他的思想卻影響了經濟、外交、政治和生物學 - 生活的幾乎所有受競爭推動的方面。但他缺席職業生涯這麼久，有些學者認爲他已經死了。

"We helped lift him into daylight," Assar Lindbeck, the former chairman of the committee for the Nobel Prize in economics, told Sylvia Nasar, Dr. Nash's biographer. "We resurrected him in a way."

"我們把他擡到陽光下。"諾貝爾經濟學獎委員會的前主席阿薩·林德貝克告訴納什博士的傳記作者西爾維婭·納薩。"我們以某種方式使他復活了。"

Nasar's book, titled "A Beautiful Mind," was published in 1998 and adapted for the big screen three years later. The film, although criticized by some for presenting a romanticized version of the mathematician's life, won four Oscars, including for best picture. Portrayed by Russell Crowe, Dr. Nash became an international celebrity — perhaps the most famous mathematician in recent memory.

納薩的書名爲"美麗心靈"，出版於1998年，三年後搬上了大銀幕。這部電影，儘管受到了一些對數學家生活進行浪漫化的批評，卻榮獲四項奧斯卡大獎，包括最佳影片。羅素·克洛描繪的納什博士成爲國際名人 - 也許是近來最有名的數學家。

Complexity in competition

競爭中的複雜性

Modern game theory was first articulated by mathematician John von Neumann and economist Oskar Morgenstern in the 1944 volume "Theory of Games and Economic Behavior."

現代博弈論最早由數學家約翰·馮·諾伊曼和經濟學家奧斯卡·摩根斯坦在1944年的著作《博弈論與經濟行爲》中表述。

Its objective: to understand and ultimately predict the interactions between rivals in given circumstanc es. During the Cold War standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union, game theory became in asingly fashionable and immensely useful.

其目標是：理解並最終預測給定情況下競爭對手之間的相互作用。在美國和蘇聯之間的冷戰對峙期間，博弈變得越來越 時尚,非常有用。

Von Neumann and Morgenstern had assumed the existence of a "zero-sum" game such as checkers, in wP e Party's loss was the adversary's gain. Dr. Nash 狄 who, ironically, was said to have struggled since ch ildhood with social interactions 狄 observed that few human rivalries function in so simple a fashion.

馮路諾依曼和摩根斯坦曾假定存在“零和”博弈,就像在跳棋中，一方的損失就是對手的收益。具有諷刺意味的是,據說在從小就與社會互動艱難的納什博士觀察到人類競爭活動很少會如此簡單。

expanded game theory to include cooperative games (in which binding agreements can be made) and n ooperative games (in which they cannot), and to allow for the possibility of mutual gain. Such an outcome became known as the Nash equilibrium.

他將博弈論擴展到包含合作博弈(其中可以達成有約束力的協議)和非合作博弈(其中達不成協議),並允許有共同獲益的可能。這祥的結果是著名的納什均衡。

Nash equilibriums, which he described in the hieroglyphics of mathematical symbols, exist everywhere. Two magazines might charge the same price so that each may achieve maximum profit. Two rival nations might agree to arms treaties that limit each of their stockpiles but guarantee both countries a measure of security.

他以數學符號的天書描述的納什均衡無處不在。兩本雜誌可能會採取相同的價格，以便雙方都可以實現最大的利潤。兩個敵對國家可能會同意武器條約來限制他們的軍備，但同時保證雙方某種程度的安全。

The utility of Dr. Nash's work had limitations. One is that rivals frequently do not fully know each other's strategies, as his theories assumed. Another limitation is that in many cases, there is not a single possible outcome for a conflict but rather many potential outcomes. Game theorists John Harsanyi and Reinhard Selten shared with Dr. Nash the 1994 Nobel Prize for contributions in those areas of the field. The prize citation recognized all three men for their "pioneering analysis."

納什博士的工作的效用有其侷限性。其中之一是，對手通常並不完全知道對方的策略，而他的理論有此假設。另一個限制是，在許多情況下，衝突可能有許多潛在的可能性，而不止是單個結果。博弈論專家約翰·海薩尼和萊因哈德·澤爾滕因爲此領域的貢獻與納什博士分享1994年諾貝爾獎。頒獎詞認可了他們三人"開創性的分析。"

Dr. Nash was described as having insights before he could hammer out the proofs of their accuracy, the thoughts coming to him more like revelations than like scholarly findings. As early as 1958, Fortune magazine had ranked him among the greatest mathematicians of the era.

納什博士被描述爲更富於洞察力，而非準確的證明，他的思想更像是天啓，而非學術成果。早在1958年,《財富》雜誌就將他排爲那個時代最偉大的數學家之一。

"Everyone else would climb a peak by looking for a path somewhere on the mountain," Nasar quoted a former colleague as saying. "Nash would climb another mountain altogether and from a distant peak would shine a searchlight back on the first peak."

"其他人會通過查找山裏的某處路徑來攀登高峯，"納薩援引一位前同事的話說。"納什會完全爬到另一座山，從遙遠的山峯用探照燈來回照第一個峯。"

The emperor of Antarctica

南極洲的皇帝

His mental illness came on when he was about 30, during what might have been one of the richest periods of his career. Dr. Nash was working at the time at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was studying quantum theory.

他30歲左右時精神病來襲，這時候可能是他職業生涯中最豐富的時期之一。納什博士當時在麻省理工學院工作，正在研究量子理論。

As his condition worsened, Dr. Nash suffered delusions, hallucinations and impressions of being hunted. Men wearing red ties, he came to believe, were part of a "crypto-Communist Party."

由於病情惡化，納什博士苦於妄想、幻覺和被追殺的印象。他開始相信，帶紅色領帶的男人很可能是"地下GCD"。

He thought that the New York Times was publishing messages from extraterrestrials and that he could understand them. He gave a student an intergalactic driver's license, Nasar wrote.

他認爲《紐約時報》正在由外星人發佈消息，並說他能理解他們。他給了學生一個星際駕照，納薩寫道。

At one point, he declined a prestigious appointment to the University of Chicago because he believed that he was in line to become emperor of Antarctica. At another point, he concluded, according to Nasar, that he was a "messianic figure of great but secret importance" and searched numerals — once the object of his brilliance — for hidden messages.

在某個時刻，他拒絕了久負盛名的芝加哥大學的任命，因爲他認爲他即將成爲南極洲皇帝。根據納薩的說法，在另一個時刻他得出結論，他是一個"救世主式的重要人物，偉大而又神祕"，並開始搜索具有隱祕信息的數字 —— 這些數字一度成爲他出色才華的對象。

"I felt like I might get a divine revelation by seeing a certain number; a great coincidence could be interpreted as a message from heaven," Dr. Nash said years later in the PBS "American Experience" documentary "A Brilliant Madness."

"我覺得我能通過觀察一個數來得到神的啓示，一個偉大的巧合可以解釋爲從天上來的消息，"納什博士多年後在PBS的紀錄片"美國經驗"中說，"才華橫溢的瘋狂"。

He let his hair grow long. He traveled abroad and attempted to give up his U.S. citizenship, and at various times considered himself a Japanese shogun, the biblical figure Job and a Palestinian refugee, among other identities.

他頭髮留得長長的。他在國外旅行並試圖放棄美國國籍，還在不同時期認爲自己是日本幕府將軍、聖經人物、巴勒斯坦難民以及其他身份。

During one of his stays in mental institutions, a former colleague came for a visit.

在他待在精神病院的一個時期，一個以前的同事來探望他。

"How could you, a mathematician devoted to reason and logical proof . . . how could you believe that extraterrestrials are sending you messages?" he asked, according to Nasar.

"作爲一個致力於理性和邏輯證明的數學家，你怎麼這樣…你怎麼能相信外星人在給你發信息呢？"根據納薩的說法，他問道。

"Because," Dr. Nash responded, "the ideas about supernatural beings came to me the same way that my mathematical ideas did. So I took them seriously."

納什博士回答說，"因爲關於超自然物的思想就如同數學思想一樣來到，所以我把它們當回事。"

‘Big Brains'

"大頭"

John Forbes Nash Jr. was born June 13, 1928, in Bluefield, . His father was an electrical engineer and his mother was an English and Latin teacher.

小約翰·福布斯·納什1928年6月13日出生在西弗吉尼亞州的藍田。他的父親是一個電氣工程師，母親是英語和拉丁語教師。

As a child, John Jr. acquired a nickname: "Big Brains." His family encouraged education, but he recalled in his Nobel biographical sketch the need to "learn from the world's knowledge rather than from the knowledge of the immediate community."

作爲一個孩子，小約翰獲得了一個綽號："大頭。"他的家庭鼓勵教育，但他在他的諾貝爾小傳中回憶，"從世界的知識中學習，遠甚於從附近社區中學習。"

In 1945, he enrolled at what is now Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and completed his undergraduate work after switching from chemical engineering to chemistry and finally to mathematics. So great was his progress that he received a master's degree in addition to his bachelor's degree, both in mathematics, upon his graduation in 1948. He then moved to Princeton University, where, as a second-year student, he wrote the thesis that became the intellectual underpinning of his contributions to game theory.

1945年，他就讀於位於匹茲堡的現在的卡內基梅隆大學，從化學工程轉到化學，最後轉到數學後完成了他的本科學業。他的進步是如此之大，以致在1948年畢業時除學士學位外還獲得碩士學位，都在數學學科。隨後他去了普林斯頓大學，在那裏，他作爲一個二年級學生寫下的論文成爲對博弈論所作貢獻的知識基礎。

Dr. Nash was "handsome as a god," a former classmate told Nasar, but deeply unusual. He rode a bicycle in figure-eights. He joined a group of students that carried on the long tradition at Princeton of playing complex games and even invented a game of his own.

納什博士"英俊得像個男神，"但極不尋常，一個以前的同學告訴納薩。他騎自行車走8字形。他加入了有悠久傳統的玩複雜遊戲的普林斯頓學生團體，甚至自己發明了一個遊戲。

Dr. Nash received his doctorate in 1950, joined the MIT faculty and soon took a research position at the Rand Corp. in California. In that period of his career, he untangled what he described as a "classical unsolved problem" related to differential geometry and to general relativity.

納什博士在1950年獲得博士學位，加入了麻省理工學院，並很快獲得加州蘭德公司的研究職位。在他職業生涯的這一時期，他解決了一個他描述的"經典未解問題"，這與微分幾何與和廣義相對論相關。

Also during that period, Dr. Nash met Eleanor Stier, a nurse with whom he had a son, John David Stier, in 1953. A year later, Dr. Nash was arrested for indecent exposure at a men's restroom in Santa Monica, Calif., and was immediately dismissed from Rand. According to Nasar's biography, he denied that he was gay, showing a picture of Stier and their infant son to Rand officials as evidence.

也是在此期間，納什博士遇見了護士埃莉諾·斯蒂爾，他與她在1953年生了一個兒子約翰·大衛·斯蒂爾。一年後，納什博士涉嫌猥褻暴露而在加州聖莫尼卡的一個男廁內被捕，並立即被蘭德解僱。按照納薩的傳記，他否認自己是同性戀，並向蘭德官員展示斯蒂爾和他們幼子的照片作爲證據。

He then returned to MIT, where he met Alicia Larde, a physics student from El Salvador, and they married in 1957. Shortly thereafter, Alicia became pregnant with their son, John Charles Martin Nash, and Dr. Nash began to show signs of mental instability.

然後他回到了麻省理工學院，在那裏他遇到了艾麗西婭·拉德，來自薩爾瓦多的物理學學生，他們於1957年結婚後。此後不久，艾麗西婭懷上了他們的兒子，約翰·查爾斯·馬丁·納什，納什博士開始出現精神不穩定的跡象。

During his illness, Dr. Nash was divorced from his wife, moved in and out of hospitals and endured dangerous treatments including insulin-coma therapy. Alicia Nash later took him into her home and cared for him even though they were no longer married.

在他生病期間，納什博士與妻子離婚，搬進搬出醫院，忍受包括胰島素休克療法在內的危險治療。艾麗西婭·納什後來把他帶到她家裏照顧他，即使他們不再是夫妻了。

He spent much of his time on the Princeton campus, where some recognized him as the genius that he was. Others knew him as the Ghost of Fine Hall, a reference to the building that houses the mathematics department.

他把大部分時間花在普林斯頓校園，在那裏認爲他是曾經的天才，另一些人則認爲他是範因大廳的幽靈，這指的是數學系進駐的大樓。

In time, and seemingly against all odds, he appeared to overcome the illness that had afflicted him for so long. He insisted that he "willed" his recovery.

隨着時間的推移，看似困難重重，但他似乎克服了困擾了他這麼久的疾病。他堅持說，他"想要"復甦。

"I decided I was going to think rationally," Dr. Nash told an interviewer.

"我決定我要理性思考，"納什博士告訴面試官。

Dr. Nash and Alicia were remarried in 2001. "We thought it would be a good idea," she later said. "After all, we've been together most of our lives."

納什博士和艾麗西婭在2001年復婚。"我們認爲這會是一個好主意，"她後來說， "畢竟，我們大部分生命中一直在一起。"

Survivors include his sons, John David Stier of Lynn, Mass., and John Charles Martin Nash of Princeton Junction; and a sister.

參加者包括他的兒子，馬薩諸塞林恩的約翰·戴維·斯蒂爾和普林斯頓中轉站的約翰·查爾斯·馬丁·納什，以及一個妹妹。

Dr. Nash remarked in his Nobel biographical sketch that his return to rational scientific thought was "not entirely a matter of joy as if someone returned from physical disability to good physical health."

納什博士在他的諾貝爾小傳中說，他迴歸理性的科學思維"不完全像人從身體殘疾恢復到身體健康那是快樂的事。"

"Without his ‘madness,' " Dr. Nash wrote, "Zarathustra would necessarily have been only another of the millions or billions of human individuals who have lived and then been forgotten."

"如果沒有其‘瘋狂'，"納什博士寫道，"查拉圖斯特拉必然只是億萬個曾經存在然後被遺忘的人中的另外一個而已。"

Emily Langer is a reporter on The Washington Post's obituaries desk. She has written about national and world leaders, celebrated figures in science and the arts, and heroes from all walks of life.

艾米麗·蘭格是《華盛頓郵報》訃聞專欄的一個記者。她描寫了國家和世界領導人，恭賀了科學和藝術人物，以及各行各業的英雄。