Edition: U.S. / Global  Johnny Jiggles the Planet  By Ed Regis;
Published: November 8, 1992  JOHN VON NEUMANN By Norman Macrae.
405 pp. New York: A Cornelia and Michael Bessie Book/ Pantheon
Books. $25.  BY any measure, John von Neumann was a rare
creature. Unequivocally one of the brightest minds of the 20th
century, he made an indelible mark in mathematics, physics,
economics, nuclear weapons technology and computer science, and
had a hand in inventing at least three new fields -- cellular
automata theory (showing how groups of inanimate cells can be
made to behave as if they were alive), game theory (applying
mathematics to the art of decision making) and the systematic
study of the similarity of minds and computers. In one of his
own pet phrases, he "jiggled the planet." So why is it that most
people haven't the faintest idea who he was?  Good question.
Norman Macrae, the former principal editor of The Economist,
sets out to rectify matters in "John von Neumann," the first
full-scale biography of this pol