John Nash Has Died

http://www.nj.com/middlesex/index.ssf/2015/05/famed_a_beautiful_mind_mathematician_wife_killed_in_taxi_crash_police_say.html

by rcina • 11 years ago

1282 241 11 years ago

nj.com

piyushpr134• 11 years ago

Thats just sad :(

fennecfoxen• 11 years ago

sigh I suppose it's a sign of the times that there are already Uber-vs-Taxi rants in the source article's comments (while there are some valid points there, it's rather tasteless.)

protomyth5• 11 years ago

Sadly, a lot of people subscribe to the mantra "never let a crisis go to waste". I miss the quite contemplation of the dead and then a thoughtful analysis of if we have a problem and what we can do to solve it. I guess that's long gone or only alive in niche areas.

rest in peace troubled brilliance

tomjen33• 11 years ago

As much as I hate to argue against thoughtful analysis, sometimes never letting a good crisis go to waste can radically improve chances that others don't die - and at that point I can live with not giving sufficient respect to the death.

Apocryphon• 11 years ago

It's ridiculous to even think about ridesharing in this context. Better to focus on advancing self-driving vehicles, so that we may one day live in a world without the possibility of car accidents. Such an unnecessary source of injury and death.

po6• 11 years ago

Such a tragic loss.

Like many people, I never wore a seatbelt while riding in a taxi. I'm not really sure why, it just seemed somehow to be the social norm and I went along with it. Then one day, my co-worker and his girlfriend were both severely injured while in an accident crossing the east river in manhattan.

Ever since then, I've gotten in the habit of using my seatbelt while in a taxi, car, bus, or whatever. Sometimes I get weird looks from it. Sometimes I find that the seatbelt is buried in the seat because seemingly nobody has used it for months. I do the same thing here in Tokyo and I believe its still rare for passengers to care but at least the cars are cleaner and the belts are better maintained.

It's a bit odd that we (New Yorkers in this case) allow the TLC to push back on those regulations and win.

msutherl2• 11 years ago

I'm going to start buckling up in cabs now. Same as wearing earplugs at clubs, you might get weird looks, but it's better to be uncool than dead (or living with tinnitus).

po6• 11 years ago

Does it surprise you at all that I also carried around a set of earplugs on my keychain all through my college years? I highly recommend these as they don't change the audio spectrum very much compared to the foam kind:

http://www.etymotic.com/consumer/hearing-protection/er20.htm...

I think I just really like low-impact high-reward behaviors. People tend to over-insure for common and minor issues and under-insure fore rare but costly ones.

CarVac2• 11 years ago

I have the same Etymotics earplugs as someone in an above comment.

They were the best 15 dollar purchase I've ever made. I wear them even in only moderately loud situations.

Unlike foam earplugs, the only part that is visible is clear plastic so most people don't notice.

raverbashing2• 11 years ago

Unless you're working in a club or going there very frequently, I'm not sure wearing earplugs is going to make a big difference

Edit: see below for a better definition of frequently

starky• 11 years ago

Pretty much everyone I know that goes out to a club regularly wears earplugs. People are unlikely to even notice if you are wearing a pair of musicians earplugs.

higherpurpose2• 11 years ago

That's why I really like cars which make a sound if you don't have your seatbelt on. That way they don't give you the choice of not wearing the seatbelt and it's how it should be. This is why in such cases I strongly believe governments should force companies to enable something like that.

The social norms are stupid and this would give you the excuse to ignore them without giving it a second thought (hey, the car is making me wear it!).

DanBC8• 11 years ago

People just fasten the seat belt while they're not sitting in the seat then sit on the fastened belt.

CarVac2• 11 years ago

A long time ago there were cars with the shoulder belt attached to a motorized track on the door frame that would pretty much force you to wear it...only for the front seats though.

Maybe instead of a power button, cars should turn on when you buckle up after the brake pedal is depressed.

tomjen33• 11 years ago

I certainly don't understand why the taxi allows you not to, but in your own car you should be in charge.

I don't really give a hoot about the counter arguments against it, but at the same time I wouldn't let anybody in a car I drive without the seatbelt on.

ngoede3• 11 years ago

I visited Fort Lauderdale, FL earlier this year and it seemed like all the taxis were Priuses which of course all have a very loud you must buckle your seat belt noise.

jimworm• 11 years ago

There are seatbelt buckles made specifically for silencing those alarms, and boy are they popular in China.

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=43123079687

SilasX• 11 years ago

I like that feature, but I hate how the alarm goes off as soon as the car turns on. That just annoys me, and is the wrong time to give the warning, since you'd have to put the seatbelt on before turning on the engine, which it's much faster to do the latter first.

They should hold off on the warning until you've shifted the car out of park.

krschultz• 11 years ago

I started wearing the seatbelt in NYC cabs after I saw the results of a relatively minor cab accident. The plastic barrier between the passenger and driver compartments was covered in blood. That's all the convincing I needed.

jkestner• 11 years ago

That would make an excellent decal for a "buckle up" campaign.

ufo• 11 years ago

I have gotten into the habit of always checking if the seatbelt is there before I get into a taxi and if its not I ride on the front seat. Well, I guess at least now I can tell a story about a famous guy who died from not wearing a seatbelt in the taxi whenever I get those odd looks from people.

I have always wondered why its so common to find cars with the rear seatbelts missing. The common story I get from taxi drivers is that passengers who don't like sitting on top of belt buckles shove them into the seat.

seanmcdirmid2• 11 years ago

This is probably true. Most Beijing taxis are missing rear seat belts, usually shoved somewhere. Given Beijing traffic, it is quite scary, especially when the taxi driver looks like they are at the end of a 20 hour shift.

tyfon• 11 years ago

I _always_ buckle up, even in bus. I've gotten looks from taxi drives in south Europe for this, they treat it as an insult. I feel it's better to insult than be dead. Afaik since you get fined quite severely in Norway where I live (and most of Europe) if you don't wear a seat belt, the rate of use is much higher than the US.

He will be missed. Hopefully it can put focus on such a simple thing to save lives.

themartorana• 11 years ago

Oddly, you get fined in the U.S. for not wearing a seatbelt in the car you're driving ("Click it or ticket!") but I've never heard of someone being cited for not wearing one in a cab. Is it because it's the back seat?

po6• 11 years ago

Here's a fun fact: the yellow school busses most North Americans get trucked to school in usually don't have seatbelts. The reason is that they follow a different school of thought regarding safety.

The basic idea is that instead of giving everyone seatbelts that unruly kids won't adjust properly and will use to whack each other's teeth out, you make really high padded seats so that in the case of an accident the passengers go flying into the seat in front of them, but its a relatively short distance and a soft, sturdy landing. The theory is called 'compartmentalization' if you're looking for a google search term. Here's one:

https://canadasafetycouncil.org/child-safety/there-need-seat...

D-Coder• 11 years ago

"They treat it as an insult" — also some US drivers. I just say "Oh, I trust _your_ driving, it's the drunks and crazies out there that I don't trust."

perakojotgenije• 11 years ago

Since you've mentioned south Europe, here in Serbia since a few years ago the fines for not using a seatbelt are so high that taxi drivers often ask you to buckle up if you don't do it yourself and they never give you strange look for using it. At least one good thing here.

BlackDeath3• 11 years ago

they treat it as an insult

I treat that as an insult. As if their ego is more important than me not being launched through a fucking windshield.

davidp• 11 years ago

I've gotten looks from taxi drives in south Europe for this, they treat it as an insult. I feel it's better to insult than be dead.

It's easier than that -- just tell the driver you're not worried about him or her, but about the other drivers on the road.

userbinator2• 11 years ago

"Seatbelt culture" probably depends greatly on the local culture. In the UK, the driver of a taxi is allowed to not wear one, but not the passengers.

http://www.driving-law.co.uk/offences/seat_belts-exemptions....

marvel_boy• 11 years ago

The same in Spain.

mmarx• 11 years ago

Also in Germany, where the driver is allowed not to wear a seatbelt while carrying passengers, but has to wear a seatbelt as long as the taxi is empty (passengers are always required to wear seatbelts).

lotsofmangos• 11 years ago

I was talking to a cab driver in Bristol about that and it is apparently because drivers were getting robbed by people strangling them with the seatbelt.

ajdlinux• 11 years ago

In Australia this used to be the case (same justification of taxi driver robberies), but I believe it's now only legal in Queensland - the other jurisdictions have all changed their rules in the last few years. The taxi driver lobby groups have not liked this.

jessaustin• 11 years ago

Due to risk compensation, taxis with passengers in belts and drivers not in belts may be the safest for passengers.

toddkazakov• 11 years ago

I am always using the seatbelt. I recently realized that when you are on the backseat of a car, by buckling up you are protecting the person in front of you. In case of an accident applying your weight to the one in the seat in front of you might cause more damage than the accident itself.

simpleigh2• 11 years ago

A few years ago there was a series of adverts in the UK advertising exactly this danger. You might think you're OK with only a broken nose, but you've just crushed the person in front of you to death.

Sorry to sound so melodramatic, but I think that was the point of the advert!

ngoede3• 11 years ago

When I was in Japan and the majority of the taxis I got into would complain to the driver until I fastened my seat belt. I have made a point of wearing them in taxis for a while. The major place I don't though is buses.

15thandwhatever• 11 years ago

Before the current iteration of NYC in-cab media (the Windows system that plays a playlist of AVIs), there used to be a set of speakers in the rear of the cab.

At the beginning of every ride, it would play a pre-recorded message from you, generally from Michael Bloomberg or some other local celebrity asking you to buckle up. This got me into the habit of buckling up.

Now, the in-cab media plays a brief video message with no audio that tells you rates, who to call with an issue (311), and to buckle your seatbelt.

Maybe the lack of an audio prompt is why it's ignored now?

eshvk3• 11 years ago

Maybe the lack of an audio prompt is why it's ignored now?

Interesting. I am guilty of having missed buckling ever so often. Mainly because I have had a speed are so slow, it doesn't matter attitude. I am also new enough to the city that I didn't experience the pre-recorded messages.

macspoofing• 11 years ago

I've gotten in the habit of using my seatbelt while in a taxi, car, bus, or whatever.

Are there seatbelts in buses?

btgeekboy• 11 years ago

Some of them, yes. I've been on some buses (usually tour buses in some part of Europe) where the driver insists everyone buckles up.

tomphoolery• 11 years ago

Honestly I never understood that social norm of not wearing a seatbelt in a taxi. I'm much more confident in my driving skills than some dude yelling in some foreign language on his cell phone the entire time we're driving because at least I'm focused on one thing at a time. Sometimes the taxi doesn't even have visible seatbelts in the back (this is Philly I'm talking about, where getting around regulation is only a $200 bribe away!).

The one great thing about Uber/Lyft/et. al. is how they forced the taxi companies to step up their game and make getting a cab less of a shithole experience, at least here in Philly. Cabs are much cleaner, the drivers are not always distracted with some bullshit, and you can even hail them with an app. Before Uber came around, taxis were well aware that they were the fastest way from point A to point B (if you don't have a bike), and they gave precisely zero fucks whether you were having a nice/safe time.

awfullyjohn• 11 years ago

I also never understood the social norm of not wearing a seatbelt in a taxi, but went along with it for my first few years living in New York.

I think the mention of "some dude yelling in some foreign language" is unnecessary. A person's native tongue says nothing of their intellectual capacity, nor of their ability to safely navigate a city.

drawkbox• 11 years ago

To top it off, getting in a taxi in NY for instance is a bit scary. The first time in one it was a wild ride.

I think people expect taxi drivers to get in less accidents because they are so seasoned. They can come within inches of other vehicles and dangers but with an indy 500 driving skill.

It seems like driving on the edge like this would encourage others to use a seat belt but alas when you have 3 people piled in the car for a short ride it gets overlooked. It really should be a standard to wear a seat belt.

Only kids school buses can get away with not wearing one and that is primarily because a school bus is so huge that others impacting it does little, and if a school bus driver had to seat belt all the kids it would take forever and the trip would be over before it started.

coldtea• 11 years ago

Honestly I never understood that social norm of not wearing a seatbelt in a taxi.

Same to the social norm of not wearing seatbelts in the backseat (which is where you usually are in a taxi).

murbard2• 11 years ago

I think it's because people tend to associate the cabs with the slow speeds involved in the city. I typically don't buckle up in Manhattan, except on the FDR or the West Side Highway, or if we're going above 30 mph.

For those unfamiliar with the NJ turnpike, where the accident happened, the speed limit is 65 mph and people drive like maniacs. Definitely a place where you want your seatbelt one.

ics• 11 years ago

Agreed. Another recent incident on the turnpike was the crash that injured Tracy Morgan (comedian) and killed another. If the NJ Turnpike isn't the place to wear a seatbelt then I don't know where is.

stephen_g• 11 years ago

That is just bizarre to me. Being raised in Australia in the 90s, the idea that you would ever not wear a seatbelt in a car is just completely foreign to me...

Some busses don't have seatbelts, but for everything else it's just a subconscious thing that I always do (and as far as I know it's the same for almost everyone here because the penalties are quite severe - in some states, the driver can get demerit points if one of their passengers is not wearing one. For example, at certain times (usually holidays) in New South Wales when they have double demerit points, if you have two passengers unrestrained you get 12 points (at 13 points you lose your license for 3 months).

peteretep2• 11 years ago

In Bangkok I pay a premium to use Uber, because their seatbelts always work; the regular cabs here never seem to have them. As someone else mentioned, this might be a British thing, as it's completely inconceivable to me that you wouldn't put a seatbelt on if one was available.

eshvk3• 11 years ago

In Bangkok I pay a premium to use Uber, because their seatbelts always work

This is a bit off-topic. Do a lot of people use Uber? I have been here for a few days, can't seem to find an Uber. The app always says not-available. Flagging a cab seems a nightmare for a tourist. And grabtaxi works but there appears to be some level of negotiation at the end of the ride. The grabtaxi prices seem more like a suggestion.

malka• 11 years ago

Especially since from a game theory PoV, one should wear a seatbelt : it is a life saver, and it has verry little drawback.

tobiasu• 11 years ago

Rest in peace

cletus• 11 years ago

The culture around seatbelts in the US confounds me.

As an Australian I've spent my entire life wearing seatbelts. It's second nature. I don't even think about it. Taxis or otherwise. In fact I think it's required in all cases.

But in the US people seem to view the choice to turn a mild car accident into a severe or even fatal one as some kind of moral stance or personal freedom. Or rather any effort to require their use as Big Government or the Nanny State.

Some states still don't require rear passengers to wear seatbelts. [1]

Personally I wear a seatbelt in cabs and don't think twice about it. I'd feel uncomfortable without one.

Anyway, sad news.

[1] http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seat_belt_legislation_in_the_...

munin• 11 years ago

we might die in car accidents but at least we don't have an anti porn great firewall...

kiba• 11 years ago

As an American, I wear seatbelts automatically. I don't know anyone who don't.

efdee• 11 years ago

As a person with half a brain, so do I.

vinay427• 11 years ago

The state I live in apparently has one of the highest seat belt usage rates (despite no rear seat belt enforcement for those 16+), which would explain why I almost never see people avoiding them. Sorting by usage in the Wikipedia table, I don't see much of a correlation between policy and the actual use except with primary vs. secondary enforcement, which would imply it's more cultural than not. That said, I agree that it's very disappointing that people don't understand the importance of wearing a seat belt when the cases are all around us showing that in almost every situation they are beneficial.

"Self-reported seatbelt use among adults in the United States increased steadily between 2002 and 2010, with the national prevalence reaching 87% in 2010. However, seatbelt use in states with secondary laws continues to lag behind that of states with primary laws. This lost opportunity has tremendous costs. NHTSA estimated that nearly 450 additional lives would have been saved, 12,000 nonfatal injuries prevented, and $1.6 billion in societal costs saved in 2009 alone if all states had primary laws." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022437512...

Random anecdote: I travel to India on a reasonably regular basis to visit family, and I'm inevitably the one person that insists on wearing a seat belt and gets called out on it. Before traffic laws were actually (sort of) enforced in the city I generally visit, front seat occupants never really wore them either in my experience. It boggles my mind that people would travel at 120 km/h on inconsistently paved roads with insane drivers on the road and no seat belt to hold them in place.

DanBC8• 11 years ago

It's useful to remember that while the extreme libetarian position is mostly American it's a minority position even in America. It overton windows the whole discussion, but most people who don't wear seatbelts are not "Free Men on the land" quoting Magna Carta. They're just not bothered.

slowmovintarget• 11 years ago

I do not think the verbing of "Overton window" conveys the meaning you intend.

Did you mean, "it constrains itself to the Overton window?" Or, "it attempts to move the Overton window (up/down)?" Because saying it "overton windows" the discussion is meaningless.

sillygoose4• 11 years ago

The state punishing people for not wearing seatbelts represents the idea that people need to be protected from themselves, by force.

If we go along that road, what's next? Should police officers be everywhere, ready to snatch a beer from an adult's hand if he seems to have had "too much" to drink already? What's too much? How do you know? The Nannier a state gets, the closer you are to complete tyranny.

Instead, we could just consider everyone personally responsible for their own choices.

- Didn't wear a seatbelt and got paralyzed in an accident? That's certainly tragic, but you're personally responsible for your choice to not wear a seatbelt.

- Didn't wear a seatbelt and nothing bad happened? Well good for you!

DanBC8• 11 years ago

Seatbelts protect other passengers in the car.

People are terrible at assessing risk and they probably need a gentle legislative push for some things, like seatbelts.

Lozzer• 11 years ago

Didn't wear a seatbelt and headbutted the person in front, snapping their neck. Sucks to be them, I guess. But at least you stuck it to the man.

cafebeen• 11 years ago

It's a bit of a stretch to say that seatbelt tickets lead to tyranny--driving's mostly a privilege not a right. Seatbelts can affect other people due to an inability to control the vehicle after a collision, more likely use of emergency resources, etc. I generally agree with the sentiment about nanny states, though

sipior2• 11 years ago

Well, cletus, perhaps I can shed some light on this troubling question for you. Generally speaking (and there are naturally many exceptions, humans being the delightfully-flawed creatures that we are), the American government prefers to treat its citizens like competent adults who would rather not die if a suitable alternative presents itself. And so we don't generally have laws that require us to look both ways before crossing a street, or laws against poking angry bears with sticks and such like. America would rather you were smart enough not to do that sort of thing.

Of course, we have laws that all children must be suitably restrained in a motor vehicle because, hey, they're not adults. And we have laws that drivers must wear a seat belt because...well, I blame the insurance companies for that one. But America hopes you'll wear one anyway, because it's the smart thing to do.

The corollary, if you'll forgive my noticing, is that your government doesn't think you're smart enough to wear one on your own.

And so it's not really a "moral stance", but rather a general preference that our government not treat us like a bunch of ignorant monkeys. America wants you to live a long, happy life, but hey, you take your chances. Because you're an adult. And America will be sad if you fuck up and don't wear a seat belt, but life goes on. Mostly.

And now you may point out all the places where this convenant breaks down. The Drug War. The "Broken Windows" model of policing. The (up and coming!) Surveillance War. Well, fair point. Sure, we're flawed, remember? And so we try to make it better, over the long slog of decades. Sometimes it even works.

But the key idea, I think, is that by letting people fail, by letting them do stupid things, by treating them as fallible but sovereign citizens rather than a bunch of ape-men that need to be continually managed, they might become better, all on their own.

We'll let you know how it goes.

I hope this helps.

DanBC8• 11 years ago

And so we don't generally have laws that require us to look both ways before crossing a street,

You do have laws telling you where abouts you can cross a road, right? Laws about jay walking?

(Your tone is sub-optimal. I guess that's why your getting downvotes.)

jakejake2• 11 years ago

The culture in the U.S. Is very much pro-seatbelt. Grizzly TV and billboard ads run all the time (in fact I just saw one last night). The slogan here is "click it or ticket" and police will ticket you for not wearing your belt.

For some bizzare reason though, it is somehow acceptable to not wear a belt when you are in a taxi, as if you are magically protected by the "professional" driver. I'm not 100% sure but it may have something to do with being in the back seat as well, as if that made it somehow safer.

I personally always fasten the seatbelt and have never had the slightest odd look from the taxi driver.

biot• 11 years ago

Unless they use bears in the TV and billboard ads, I think you meant to say "grisly".

spacehome• 11 years ago

as if that made it somehow safer.

But it does.

coliveira2• 11 years ago

Seat belts are not required for people on the back seats, though. Since cab customers use the back seats, I believe that is the reason for not using seat belts on taxis.

kejaed• 11 years ago

There was an episode of Planet Money that covered why cars made for Europe can't be driven in the USA and vice versa.

IIRC one of the differences was in the airbag requirements, where cars designed for USA driving have air bag systems designed with the assumption the occupants aren't wearing seatbelts.

http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/04/18/304540007/episo...

mmrasheed• 11 years ago

A person who I knew nothing about became one of the inspiring figures in my life after I watched the movie, "A beautiful mind". I am neither a mathematician, nor an economist. So, I didn't get to dig his work deep. But, I often use his struggle with schizophrenia and his recovery as an example of unlimited potential of human mind.

zemanel• 11 years ago

it was a very good and surprising movie.

gus_massa• 11 years ago

Nice movie, but remember to read the diff with the real life: [spoiler alert] http://monkeymigraine.blogspot.com.ar/2007/12/beautiful-lie-...

atmosx• 11 years ago

Interesting article but I don't think the movie is bad. It's just romanticised. In my view it doesn't distort the real story in a meaningful way for the audience.

triangleman2• 11 years ago

I just watched the movie last night for the 2nd time, thinking that I was in for a completely fictionalized story, because I had uncritically accepted sensational blog titles like the one you linked to.

Turns out, the movie is a rather good depiction of the struggles that Nash went through. He published a groundbreaking paper as a grad student, married Alicia, suffered from schizophrenia, and learned how to manage it, eventually going back to Princeton as a damaged but wiser man, and worthy of a Nobel prize in economics. All of these major points were covered in the movie.

Nash himself found the movie to be close to reality, except that it may have suggested that he went back on newer antipsychotics--see the interview he gave to a Nobel reporter 10 years ago[1]. In fact, the movie was much more fair to his point of view than he admitted in the interview.

Some details of his life were left out, but his reputation as the "Ghost of Fine Hall" was preserved. I see the film as a fair presentation of his life, especially compared to the Hollywood standard for "true stories"--see The Hurricane, American Gangster, JFK, etc.

[1] http://www.nobelprize.org/mediaplayer/index.php?id=429

kvcc01• 11 years ago

Seeing Prof. Nash enjoying his walks on campus is one of my fondest memories from grad school. This is very sad.

I was curious to learn more about his work a while ago and had looked up his PhD thesis. Here's a link: http://www.princeton.edu/mudd/news/faq/topics/Non-Cooperativ....

What struck me was that it only had 2 references to prior work! That's how you know you're doing innovative research.

theOnliest• 11 years ago

And one of those was to his own earlier work!

jedbrown• 11 years ago

I'd say that lack of references is more often a sign of ignorance than innovation. I see that every day; transformative work like John Nash's thesis only come along once in a while.

sitkack• 11 years ago

The way we publish research is broken. So much prior art goes unpublished because it is never accepted by a journal. Negative results, meh results, and flawed research all have value. Proper citation is often difficult but can be as important as the work itself, other wise the knowledge graph is fractured.

revelation• 11 years ago

It also seems to be all of 30 pages long.

neuronic• 11 years ago

During my time at Princeton I used to walk around campus all of the time. Unfortunately, I never got to witness that...

PhantomGremlin• 11 years ago

One of the two references was to a previous paper of his.

The other reference was to a book co-authored by John von Neumann. It was written in 1944 but is still in print and can be purchased on Amazon.

If you're going to have only two references, you could do worse than citing those two people.

namecast• 11 years ago

Just under 64 years ago, Nash's Ph.D dissertation 'Non-Cooperative Games' was published in the Annals of Mathematics.

The most legible copy I've found on the web is here: http://www.cs.upc.edu/~ia/nash51.pdf

Requesciat in pace.

anon012012• 11 years ago

I didn't feel sad, but reading that paper I feel something which knows no name. It is between respect, appreciation for beauty, and the need to do some maths. It isn't griefful, but it is truthful, and surely M.Nash would have liked it truthful.

bane• 11 years ago

Absolutely tragic.

Just a note, New Jersey, like most states in the U.S. requires the use of seat belts for drivers and passengers, even in a taxi and police will cite you and passengers for not wearing them. Drivers will get double cited if passengers are not wearing them.

plg2• 11 years ago

I was once in a taxi in which the driver would snort cocaine when we stopped at a traffic light. Needless to say I got out and walked.

Another time I was in a taxi and the driver fell asleep on the highway. We were in stop and go traffic and after a long "stop" the traffic started moving but we did not. I noticed the driver sort of slumped over in his seat. I yelled "hello?" and he startled awake. Couldn't just get out and walk, we were on a highway in the middle of winter in Montreal.

catshirt• 11 years ago

...and your point is....?

plg2• 11 years ago

Taxis can be very dangerous

saadmalik01• 11 years ago

Wow, this is shocking. My buddy and I rode past the accident. The cops kept signaling to us to keep driving.

They posted this yesterday shortly after the crash, but at that point they did not have the bodies identified: http://www.nj.com/middlesex/index.ssf/2015/05/2_dead_in_nj_t...

naturalethic• 11 years ago

I've never worn a seatbelt in a taxi, but I've always worn them in an Uber.

yesbabyyes• 11 years ago

Oh no. RIP John and Alicia Nash. Where's the black ribbon?

axaxs2• 11 years ago

I never understand why people don't wear seat belts, even in cabs. I think the thought is that it's the city, you probably won't be going fast. But humans are really bad at judging just how fast they are travelling.

Imagine I asked you to absolutely sprint full speed into a tree while blindfolded. So no time to brace yourself or slow down. You'd probably refuse, thinking this will either hurt very badly or even permanently injure you in certain circumstances. And that is at 12-15mph for most of us. In a car you are going at least twice as fast at all times, and have all sorts of fun objects to break your motion, like steering wheels and dashboards.

willis77• 11 years ago

Cycling is great for giving an appreciation for what 20-30mph really feels like, without the car disconnect. Same as your sprinting example: go get a bike, find the steepest hill you know of, pedal as fast as you can down the hill (this is going to be 30-40 mph), then ask yourself if you'd like to hit a brick wall in that moment. Most people who are otherwise comfortable riding without seatbelts would be peeing pants and grabbing brakes long before 40mph.

Jach• 11 years ago

These are both pretty terrible arguments, due to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impulse_%28physics%29 Cars have crumple zones for a reason. This is not to say seat belts aren't good, as they along with air bags contribute to impulse, but there's a huge difference between shooting an egg (or person) at a brick wall at 50 mph while naked, vs. encasing it in sufficient amounts of bubble wrap first. I'll gladly sprint into a tree, or ram a bike into a wall, at such speeds provide I or the tree/wall are sufficiently padded. (https://youtu.be/DEP8juRSBRo)

eeeeeeeeeeeee• 11 years ago

Plus, in my experience, cab drivers have no qualms with going double the speed limit (more fares is more money).

todayiamme• 11 years ago

It is always strange when people who have had an outsized impact upon others die. Prof. Nash wasn't just someone who was killed in a traffic accident. He was someone who touched the lives of many, many people in surprising ways. His work itself has a large sphere of influence that will exist without him, but I'm talking about a more personal kind of influence. He was an example of living to who you could be regardless of what was broken inside of you or what was "missing."

When I was a teenager, I had the good fortune of attending a lecture by Prof. Nash. Although I did not have the maturity to truly grasp what he was trying to explain - the event did influence my later life. I started reading up about him and his struggles with his schizophrenia, the work he wanted to do, the fears he had of never achieving it, and how despite everything he ended up manifesting his work anyway. This influenced my own struggle with teenage depression and made me realise that there was probably more I could contribute beyond the seemingly staunch limits of my own mind. That altered my life trajectory in a "tiny" but measurable way, so that I - a complete stranger - feel moved by the loss.

I'm sure he stands for so much more to so many people and that's a testament to the power of a life well lived.

elmar• 11 years ago

"He was an example of living to who you could be regardless of what was broken inside of you or what was "missing.""

This is a wonderful legacy and i just love the way you where able to describe it on one sentence, thanks.

verbin2172• 11 years ago

I think that sort of excellence is born from resignation to "brokenness". Many many people waste their potential trying to fix the things they think they're missing.

ValentineSmith• 11 years ago

By sharing this story and adding your experience, you have allowed his influence to grow that much more. Thank you for the moving words.

SpaceManNabs• 11 years ago

This feels really odd. I just saw John Nash a few days ago in the Fine Hall elevator. Hell, I used to see him all the time in Fine Hall. I will surely remember and miss him as I walk through campus next year and remember all the "sightings." What a loss.

rglovejoy• 11 years ago

Obligatory xkcd: http://xkcd.org/182/

triangleman2• 11 years ago

OK this is probably the best evidence for the inaccuracy of A Beautiful Mind.

rayiner2• 11 years ago

His wife Alicia was also killed in the accident.

nnutter• 11 years ago

The metro buses I ride in to St. Louis do not have seat belts, do not have soft seats, and are not high but they drive on the freeway at 65+ MPH. It's even legit just to stand which I've done when the bus is crowded. None of this has ever felt safe to me but I assumed someone had determined that it was. For instance, I had not known how effective school busses' high, padded seats were at protecting its passengers until reading this thread and had assumed similarly that they didn't seem safe but must be.

tim333• 11 years ago

Apparently (1998 figures) in the US about 41,000 people die in road accidents of which about four are motorcoach passengers. So in general anything to get people onto busses rather than cars would be a plus.

http://www.ntsb.gov/news/events/Pages/Bus_Crashworthiness.as...

mckoss• 11 years ago

Bob Simon of 60 Minutes also died this way in February. Wear your seatbelts in cabs and Ubers, people!

chx• 11 years ago

In Canada, wearing a seat belt is the law, plain and simple. http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/safety/safe-driving-practic... http://www.pssg.gov.bc.ca/osmv/road-safety/seatbelts.htm and so on I won't list all the provinces but you get the picture. You will be stopped and ticketed if you ride in a cab w/o a seatbelt.

haloboy777• 11 years ago

god bless noble soul... sigh i am numb :/

martindale• 11 years ago

Black bar.

dluan• 11 years ago

John Nash's 1950 thesis: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ze91a751btm2lkr/PhD_Thesis_John_Na...

I've stumbled on it a while ago, now is a fitting time to share it. Thanks John Nash for teaching me how to cut a cake, and many other things in life.

efm• 11 years ago

Terry Tao says they were returning from the Abel prize ceremony: https://plus.google.com/+TerenceTao27/posts/F6dLkQietJg

dsacco• 11 years ago

He was a beautiful human being, I wish he had been wearing a seatbelt.

Maybe when we have self-driving cars men and women like John and Alicia won't have to be killed in "accidents" caused by people who don't understand how to drive without murdering others.

GigabyteCoin• 11 years ago

Just because you "understand how to drive" doesn't mean you are protected from being killed while driving.

allpratik• 11 years ago

RIP Professor! :( sad

rdl2• 11 years ago

Self driving cars can't come soon enough. I'd be fine with 100x the current punishments for drunk driving if someone has the option of a self driving car and actually chooses not to use it.

armansu• 11 years ago

Remembering John Nash

It was an afternoon of Monday, May 9 2011 (the so-called ‘Victory Day’ in post-Soviet Union countries - that’s how I remember). For the previous 2 weeks, I was busy working on my final project for the Information Retrieval course - Natural Language Processing project which aimed to teach Japanese grammar with example sentences. The Spring semester was about to end, and I was struggling with my New Jersey pollen allergies while having a lunch with a friend at the Frist Campus Center.

We were sitting at the table right next to the tray return conveyors, so when I spotted a familiar figure returning his tray, I decided to approach him. That was indeed Prof. Nash. The topic for the conversation was not hard to find, as just a couple of days before on the Kazakh news sites, I saw that he was one of 6 Nobel Laureates who attended the annual Astana Economic Forum in my hometown. Apparently, he just got back from the forum past Friday. We talked about his meeting with the Prime Minister, the fact that the meeting with the President was cancelled on the last minute. He said it was his first time in Kazakhstan and his second time in the former Soviet Union country (he's been to Saint Petersburg a couple of times) and one thing that surprised him was the fact that all the signs in the Central Asian country were in Cyrillic (not Chinese). We chatted for about 5-10 minutes. I guess, that’s how you blow an opportunity to talk mathematics with the legendary mathematician.

Next year in May 2012 he attended the Astana Economic Forum once again. It just so happened that he flew back on the same Lufthansa Astana -> Frankfurt flight with my family who were traveling to the US for my graduation. My mom told me how over the course of the flight a few times on his way back from the restroom he stopped by my younger brother Nurym and in complete silence watched him time his 4x4x4 Rubik’s cube solves.

One year later in May 2013 while browsing the shelves of The Labyrinth Bookstore in downtown Princeton I stumbled upon the book “The Essential John Nash” which with plain and informal style attempts to explain the Nash’s diverse contributions to game theory as well as pure mathematics. It was so good that I finished one chapter right at the store and took the book home.

The world lost a beautiful mind. Rest in peace, Prof. Nash. The Phantom of Fine Hall.

shruubi• 11 years ago

Such sad news, it almost feels like it doesn't do the man justice to go like that. Even worse it was with his wife.

DigitalSea2• 11 years ago

It was through the movie A Beautiful Mind that I came to know about the man that is John Nash. an inspiring talented guy who is will be sadly missed. I have been guilty of not wearing a seatbelt in a taxi a few times before, as many others seem to point out there is this socially accepted practice of not buckling up in a taxi and I have no idea why.

If there is one thing we should take away from this highly tragic loss it is: seatbelts save lives.

cekanoni• 11 years ago

May he rest in pice now. :(

vvpan• 11 years ago

Can anybody sum up what his main achievements are?

davnicwil• 11 years ago

Very sad. The non-wearing of seatbelts in taxis is something I'm acutely aware of at the moment as I'm in Bogota, Colombia, where taxis very rarely have seatbelts in the back seats and driving conditions are erratic.

In my experience, i.e. just the people I've met (mostly in their mid-20s), locals here don't care. In the rare cases seatbelts are available, they don't wear them, and they even laugh off my suggestions to do so. The taxi drivers generally do wear them in their front seat, but I've also noticed them going without.

It's very strange and infuriating to me that not wearing a seatbelt in taxis seems to just be the culture here. I'm from the UK so wearing a seatbelt has always been a natural instinct. It's such a simple, low-cost action that can have such a high payoff in the event of a crash. It just seems obviously a better strategy to wear one than to not, but maybe that's based on my points system where fitting in with the traditional, 'done thing' weights much lower than trying to optimise my personal safety.

I've noticed this in other Latin American countries too, in particular Brazil. In Brazil if I remember correctly the taxis did actually have seatbelts fairly often, but locals (again, just people I met in their 20s) don't wear them. Indeed, when I suggested a friend buckle up in a taxi doing 80 km/h on a city road, I was told something like "that's not the Brazilian way". I was absolutely dumbfounded!

Back in Bogota, one interesting side point is that Uber cars generally do have seatbelts, and are in much better condition than the typical street minicabs. As a result, when I can order an Uber, I do. I think it's a very interesting thing that's happening there - the Uber cars aren't just disrupting on price, but on standards too. The latter is far easier than the former here, I'm sure, and despite the non-seatbelt-wearing culture you'd imagine it has to appeal to enough people to give them a competitive edge, which may go some way to pushing up standards all round.

foolinaround• 11 years ago

I initially came to hear about Nash through the movie, and Crowe did such a wonderful job!

I never heard of game theory before, and it piqued my interest, and it is quite amazing how much watching a movie did to increase my knowledge!

backtoyoujim• 11 years ago

His boardgamegeek page:

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/1630/john-nash

Mitchhhs• 11 years ago

At Princeton, John Nash sat at my lunch table in the campus center a few times. The first time it happened, I didn't know for sure it was John Nash, but there was something about him that just told me that it was. It happened many more times and I always felt a sense of awe to be in his presence. Another example of the fine line between brilliance and insanity and how they are interrelated. Not the way you would have expected John Nash to go. Rest in Peace and thank you for your contributions to the world.

paulgeop• 11 years ago

This was no accident.

jc123• 11 years ago

Very nice short video Nash did for the Abel prize http://www.abelprisen.no/artikkel/vis.html?tid=63683

mmuelly• 11 years ago

http://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/376qv4/john_nash_taugh...

John Nash Has Died

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