The title of the movie/book on John Nash’s life fascinated me. Until then, if somebody had asked me to dole out some superlatives about a mind – brilliant and genius were my two common words, but beautiful? As far as I can remember, my first distinct memories of how to use the word beautiful was my English teacher correcting me as a young kid with her effervescent smile – “young man, use the word handsome instead of beautiful for men.” For the word to cross the chasm and personify someone’s intellect fascinated me. That was my most memorable (mental) encounter with Dr. John Nash. Russell Crowe brought eloquent imagery that justified the tribute. Above all, the whole experience triggered my curiosity about what makes beautiful mind beautiful. Here is my escapade. Hope you enjoy the ride.

Connecting dots between Beauty, Traffic Lights and John Nash's work



While exploring beauty, I came across the work of Dennis Dutton work on beauty. He had a fascinating TED Talk in which he makes a rational connection on why we humans term certain things beautiful that goes beyond “in the eye of the beholder.”

Beauty,Survival and Nash Equilibrium



We stop/pause our car rides to watch great sceneries of lush green landscapes full of life’s ingredients. Dennis makes the case that we are attracted to things that are good for our survival. Beauty is our instinct’s way to help us survive.

On a damp morning, I was driving to work. Overnight wind and rains had played games with one of the traffic lights. There was a long queue at a nearby traffic signal that has been converted to a stop signal by default. As I reached the front of the line, there were 12 vehicles at the cross-roads (three on each side). The implicit tap dance on who moves first, keeping rhythmic order and yet finding a way to move along and being liberated from the queue are feelings almost all of us can relate to. None of the drivers benefit by racing past before their turn – the risk of accident increases. It also does not benefit all cars to stay put on their sides – that delays all of them with no one benefiting. So, none of the drivers can gain an advantage by sidestepping the strategy of an orderly move. The orderly gymnastics at the junction, where every driver coordinates his/her turn, is a working example of Nash Equilibrium that won John Nash the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.

What is interesting is that the drivers follow the Nash equilibrium not because of the rules, but more so for self-survival!

Is there beauty beyond survival instinct?

Beauty and Virtuoso Displays

In Dutton’s words, “Human beings have a permanent, innate taste for virtuoso displays in the arts. We find beauty in something done well.” A peacock’s feathers do not help in its survival, instead they serve a sign of fitness to female pea hens. Beauty, beyond survival instinct, is sign of skill and strength. Does Nash and his work display these qualities?

Nash Equilibrium goes beyond the traffic lights. Human interactions form the core of his work. The kind of human interactions/games with multiple players working on their vested interests, are practically true in every sphere of life - from international rivalry, law, religion to traffic lights. Nash, before the age of 30, crafted and proved that there exists at least one collective “equilibrium” strategy that works for all the participants in such games. Therein lies the brilliance of John Nash’s work. In his 28 page dissertation, he found a way to help explain the world around us filled with human interactions. Complex interactions in a simple, profound way that charted a new course in economics just like the discovery of wheel revolutionized human mobility.

Should I say beautiful for a work well done?

Summary

As I sit down to pen my thoughts, Dr John Nash, his epic battles to conquer back his mind and above all the exquisite work his beautiful mind conjured up, comes to my mind. I stand today, deeply indebted to him for triggering my quest to understand the full meaning of the word beautiful. I have come a long way from my first encounters with the word beautiful, a word that was narrowly gender based to the full bloom of the human mind – from survival instincts to any work that breathes eloquent poetry. Brilliance is reserved for mortals, but beautiful goes beyond.

Tribute to Dr. John Nash.

I am privileged for the overlapping lifetimes during your time on this venerated earth. May your beautiful mind rest in peace knowing well that your legacy is evergreen.

Karthik Rajan

I enjoy writing at the intersection of human relationships and analytics.

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