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Disturbing The Universe
Spanning the years from WWII, when he was a civilian statistician in the operations research section of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command, thru his studies with Hans Bethe at Cornell University, his early friendship with Richard Feynman & his postgraduate work with J. Robert Oppenheimer, Freeman Dyson has composed an autobiography unlike any other. Dyson evocatively conveys the thrill of a deep engagement with the world--be it as a scientist, citizen, student or parent. Detailing a unique career not limited to his groundbreaking work in physics, he discusses his interest in minimizing loss of life in war, in disarmament & even in thought experiments on the expansion of our frontiers into the galaxy.
294 pages, Hardcover
First published November 29, 1979
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3557 people want to read
About the author
Freeman Dyson
69 books391 followersFreeman Dyson was a physicist and educator best known for his speculative work on extraterrestrial civilizations and for his work in quantum electrodynamics, solid-state physics, astronomy and nuclear engineering. He theorized several concepts that bear his name, such as Dyson's transform, Dyson tree, Dyson series, and Dyson sphere.
The son of a musician and composer, Dyson was educated at the University of Cambridge. As a teenager he developed a passion for mathematics, but his studies at Cambridge were interrupted in 1943, when he served in the Royal Air Force Bomber Command. He received a B.A. from Cambridge in 1945 and became a research fellow of Trinity College. In 1947 he went to the United States to study physics and spent the next two years at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., and Princeton, where he studied under J. Robert Oppenheimer, then director of the Institute for Advanced Study. Dyson returned to England in 1949 to become a research fellow at the University of Birmingham, but he was appointed professor of physics at Cornell in 1951 and two years later at the Institute for Advanced Study, where he became professor emeritus in 2000. He became a U.S. citizen in 1957.
The son of a musician and composer, Dyson was educated at the University of Cambridge. As a teenager he developed a passion for mathematics, but his studies at Cambridge were interrupted in 1943, when he served in the Royal Air Force Bomber Command. He received a B.A. from Cambridge in 1945 and became a research fellow of Trinity College. In 1947 he went to the United States to study physics and spent the next two years at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., and Princeton, where he studied under J. Robert Oppenheimer, then director of the Institute for Advanced Study. Dyson returned to England in 1949 to become a research fellow at the University of Birmingham, but he was appointed professor of physics at Cornell in 1951 and two years later at the Institute for Advanced Study, where he became professor emeritus in 2000. He became a U.S. citizen in 1957.
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January 4, 2014
I don't remember now why I came to read something by Freeman Dyson. But something compelled me to consider his writings, so the next time I was in the library at BYU I checked out two of his books, this one and Infinite in All Directions. So far I have not been disappointed.
Disturbing the Universe is largely autobiographical, describing much of Dyson's beliefs and discoveries in the context of his life's journey. I was impressed by his fantastic views of the future. For instance he has proposed that "One should expect that, within a few thousand years of its entering the stage of industrial development, any intelligent species should be found occupying an artificial biosphere which completely surrounds its parent star." This vision of the future (for us) and the possible present (in distant galaxies) has been called a Dyson Sphere. He also imagines, "...a solar energy system based upon green technology, after we have learned to read and write the language of DNA so that we can reprogram the growth and metabolism of a tree. All that is visible above ground is a valley filled with redwood trees, as quiet and shady as the Muir Woods below Mount Tamalpais in California. These trees do not grow as fast as natural redwoods. Instead of mainly synthesizing cellulose, their cells make pure alcohol or octane or whatever other chemical we find convenient. While their sap rises through one set of vessels, the fuel that they synthesize flows downward through another set of vessels into their roots. Underground, the roots form a living network of pipelines transporting fuel down the valley. The living pipelines connect at widely separated points to a nonliving pipeline that takes the fuel out of the valley to wherever it is needed. When we have mastered the technology of reprogramming trees, we shall be able to grow such plantations wherever there is land that can support natural forests. ... Once the plantations are grown, they may be permanent and self-repairing, needing only the normal attentions of a forester to keep them healthy." This future foliage is not surprisingly called a Dyson tree. Dyson's view of the future is refreshingly optimistic.
I found Dyson's prose to be very readable. He is a scientist and presumably writes scientific papers in dense scientific language, but for this book he writes like a novelist. He is very even-handed in his treatment of the social, political, and scientific issues he discusses. I found the whole book to be interesting and entertaining.
One of the last things I expected from this book was a spiritual uplift, yet there it was in the latter chapters. In particular I was moved by his last few paragraphs. He had mentioned the biblical Elijah's experience with the Lord not being in the wind or in the earthquake or in the fire, but then hearing a still small voice (1 Kings 19:11-13). Dyson wrote that he had not heard the still small voice, but later he writes, "The still small voice comes to me, as it came to Elijah, unexpectedly...
"I am sitting in the kitchen at home in America, having lunch with my wife and children. I am grumbling as usual about the bureaucracy. For years we have been complaining to lower-level officials and there has never been any response. 'Why don't you go straight to the top?' says my wife. 'If I were you I would just telephone the head office.' I pick up the phone and dial the number. This comes as a big surprise to the children. They know how much I hate telephoning, and they like to tease me about it. Usually I will make all kinds of excuses to avoid making a call, especially when it is to somebody I don't know personally. But this time I take the plunge without hesitation. The children sit silent, robbed of their chance to make fun of my telephone phobia. To my amazement, the secretary answers at once in a friendly voice and asks what I want. I say I would like an appointment. She says, 'Good,. I have put you down for today at five.' I say, 'May I bring the children?' She says, 'Of course.' As I put down the phone I realize with a shock that we have ony an hour to get ourselves ready.
"I ask the children if they want to come. I tell them we are going to talk to God and they had better behave themselves. Only the two younger girls are interested. I am glad not to have the whole crowd on my hands. So we say goodbye to the others quickly, before they have time to change their minds. It is just the three of us. We slip out of the house quietly and walk into town to the office.
"The office is a large building. The inside of it looks like a church, but there is no ceiling. When we look up, we see that the building disappears into the distance like an elevator shaft. We hold hands and jump off the ground and go up the shaft. I look at my watch and see that we have only a few minutes left before five o'clock. Luckily, we are going up fast, and it looks as if we shall be in time for our appointment. Just as the watch says five, we arrive at the top of the shaft and walk out into an enormous throne room. The room has whitewashed walls and heavy black oak beams. Facing us at the end of the room is a flight of steps with the throne at the top. The throne is a huge wooden affair with wicker back and sides. I walk slowly toward it, with the two girls following behind. They are a little nervous, and so am I. It seems there is nobody here. I look at my watch again. Probably God did not expect us to be so punctual. We stand at the foot of the steps, waiting for something to happen.
"Nothing happens. After a few minutes I decide to climb the steps and have a closer look at the throne. The girls are shy and stay at the bottom. I walk up until my eyes are level with the seat. I see then that the throne is not empty after all. There is a three-month-old baby lying on the seat and smiling at me. I pick him up and show him to the girls. They run up the steps and take turns carrying him. After they give him back to me, I stay with him for a few minutes longer, holding him in my arms without saying a word. In the silence I gradually become aware that the questions I had intended to raise with him have been answered. I put him gently back on his throne and say goodbye. The girls hold my hands and we walk down the steps together."
This is the end of the book. I don't know whether what he related was a dream or just from his imagination, but it moved me greatly. If you like any of the extensive quotes I've given, you should read this book. You won't regret it.
Disturbing the Universe is largely autobiographical, describing much of Dyson's beliefs and discoveries in the context of his life's journey. I was impressed by his fantastic views of the future. For instance he has proposed that "One should expect that, within a few thousand years of its entering the stage of industrial development, any intelligent species should be found occupying an artificial biosphere which completely surrounds its parent star." This vision of the future (for us) and the possible present (in distant galaxies) has been called a Dyson Sphere. He also imagines, "...a solar energy system based upon green technology, after we have learned to read and write the language of DNA so that we can reprogram the growth and metabolism of a tree. All that is visible above ground is a valley filled with redwood trees, as quiet and shady as the Muir Woods below Mount Tamalpais in California. These trees do not grow as fast as natural redwoods. Instead of mainly synthesizing cellulose, their cells make pure alcohol or octane or whatever other chemical we find convenient. While their sap rises through one set of vessels, the fuel that they synthesize flows downward through another set of vessels into their roots. Underground, the roots form a living network of pipelines transporting fuel down the valley. The living pipelines connect at widely separated points to a nonliving pipeline that takes the fuel out of the valley to wherever it is needed. When we have mastered the technology of reprogramming trees, we shall be able to grow such plantations wherever there is land that can support natural forests. ... Once the plantations are grown, they may be permanent and self-repairing, needing only the normal attentions of a forester to keep them healthy." This future foliage is not surprisingly called a Dyson tree. Dyson's view of the future is refreshingly optimistic.
I found Dyson's prose to be very readable. He is a scientist and presumably writes scientific papers in dense scientific language, but for this book he writes like a novelist. He is very even-handed in his treatment of the social, political, and scientific issues he discusses. I found the whole book to be interesting and entertaining.
One of the last things I expected from this book was a spiritual uplift, yet there it was in the latter chapters. In particular I was moved by his last few paragraphs. He had mentioned the biblical Elijah's experience with the Lord not being in the wind or in the earthquake or in the fire, but then hearing a still small voice (1 Kings 19:11-13). Dyson wrote that he had not heard the still small voice, but later he writes, "The still small voice comes to me, as it came to Elijah, unexpectedly...
"I am sitting in the kitchen at home in America, having lunch with my wife and children. I am grumbling as usual about the bureaucracy. For years we have been complaining to lower-level officials and there has never been any response. 'Why don't you go straight to the top?' says my wife. 'If I were you I would just telephone the head office.' I pick up the phone and dial the number. This comes as a big surprise to the children. They know how much I hate telephoning, and they like to tease me about it. Usually I will make all kinds of excuses to avoid making a call, especially when it is to somebody I don't know personally. But this time I take the plunge without hesitation. The children sit silent, robbed of their chance to make fun of my telephone phobia. To my amazement, the secretary answers at once in a friendly voice and asks what I want. I say I would like an appointment. She says, 'Good,. I have put you down for today at five.' I say, 'May I bring the children?' She says, 'Of course.' As I put down the phone I realize with a shock that we have ony an hour to get ourselves ready.
"I ask the children if they want to come. I tell them we are going to talk to God and they had better behave themselves. Only the two younger girls are interested. I am glad not to have the whole crowd on my hands. So we say goodbye to the others quickly, before they have time to change their minds. It is just the three of us. We slip out of the house quietly and walk into town to the office.
"The office is a large building. The inside of it looks like a church, but there is no ceiling. When we look up, we see that the building disappears into the distance like an elevator shaft. We hold hands and jump off the ground and go up the shaft. I look at my watch and see that we have only a few minutes left before five o'clock. Luckily, we are going up fast, and it looks as if we shall be in time for our appointment. Just as the watch says five, we arrive at the top of the shaft and walk out into an enormous throne room. The room has whitewashed walls and heavy black oak beams. Facing us at the end of the room is a flight of steps with the throne at the top. The throne is a huge wooden affair with wicker back and sides. I walk slowly toward it, with the two girls following behind. They are a little nervous, and so am I. It seems there is nobody here. I look at my watch again. Probably God did not expect us to be so punctual. We stand at the foot of the steps, waiting for something to happen.
"Nothing happens. After a few minutes I decide to climb the steps and have a closer look at the throne. The girls are shy and stay at the bottom. I walk up until my eyes are level with the seat. I see then that the throne is not empty after all. There is a three-month-old baby lying on the seat and smiling at me. I pick him up and show him to the girls. They run up the steps and take turns carrying him. After they give him back to me, I stay with him for a few minutes longer, holding him in my arms without saying a word. In the silence I gradually become aware that the questions I had intended to raise with him have been answered. I put him gently back on his throne and say goodbye. The girls hold my hands and we walk down the steps together."
This is the end of the book. I don't know whether what he related was a dream or just from his imagination, but it moved me greatly. If you like any of the extensive quotes I've given, you should read this book. You won't regret it.
June 21, 2008
Amazon 2008-06-10. Having recently realized the multilayered magnificence of Dyson's The Scientist as Rebel, I'm determined to read the man's extent.
Dear lord, Freeman Dyson is becoming a massive hero. The man simply doesn't write a lacking page, and knows....so much. In my reading, I've found my incidental similars in Robert Oppenheimer and John von Neumann; if I were to pattern myself after anyone, it would be Mr. Dyson. I don't know anything so uplifting and wonderful.
This book is so, so awesome thus far. I've cried numerous times, laughed, raised my clenched fist in salute, and smoked many cigarettes pacing my front yard's circumference with Disturbing the Universe. I've had it only since getting home from work, but it's already become a critical part of me -- I hope.
Dear lord, Freeman Dyson is becoming a massive hero. The man simply doesn't write a lacking page, and knows....so much. In my reading, I've found my incidental similars in Robert Oppenheimer and John von Neumann; if I were to pattern myself after anyone, it would be Mr. Dyson. I don't know anything so uplifting and wonderful.
This book is so, so awesome thus far. I've cried numerous times, laughed, raised my clenched fist in salute, and smoked many cigarettes pacing my front yard's circumference with Disturbing the Universe. I've had it only since getting home from work, but it's already become a critical part of me -- I hope.
May 17, 2015
On hearing that I am working on a book of essays, WL lent me Freeman Dyson's Disturbing the Universe. He was a professor of physics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. "Born in England," the biographical note continues, " he came over to Cornell University in 1947 as a Commonwealth Fellow and settled permanently in the U.S. in 1951." A summary of his career, the next paragraph also indicates the topics of his essays: "Professor Dyson is not only a theoretical physicist; his career has spanned a large variety of practical concerns. His is a unique career inspired by direct involvement with the most pressing concerns of human life, minimizing loss of life in war, to disarmament, to thought experiments on the expansion of our frontiers into the galaxies."
From his essays, it is clear that Dyson is that rare thing, a man deeply passionate about both science and literature. His essays make reference to Goethe's Faust, Auden and Isherwood's The Ascent of F6, H. G. Wells's The Island of Doctor Moreau, John Milton's great defense of press freedom Areopagitica. The title of the book comes from T. S. Eliot's poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." The first essay "The Magic City," my favorite of the book, is a meditation on the frightening pertinence of Edith Nesbit's children's story of the same name to the abuse of science in our contemporary world. Dyson himself is a very good writer, lucid and graceful.
The force of the writing comes not only from style, however, but also from the moral discrimination that Dyson wields in confronting his life and the world's problems. He blamed himself for not taking any action though he knew as a civilian statistician at the Research Division that the Allies' strategic bombing of German cities in the last years of WWII was not only unconscionable but also ineffective and lethal only to the lives of RAF pilots. He made the interesting argument that it was the Americans' success at firebombing Tokyo that paved the way to the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima. Having built up a Strategic Bombing Command at great cost, the Allies were almost bound to use it.
In another fine essay, "The Blood of a Poet," Dyson paid a heartfelt tribute to his Winchester schoolfriend Frank Thompson whose intelligence and liveliness marked him out as a leader of men. He was a poet too. He joined the Communist Party and enlisted in the war from the start in 1939. While playing the dangerous role of the Allies' liaison with Bulgarian partisans, he was captured and executed by the Fascists, but not before giving his audience their common sign of liberty, a salute with a clenched fist, and thus inspiring the men captured with him to do the same and march to their deaths with heads held high.
The other portraits in this book are of his fellow physicists at Cornell and Princeton. Dick Feynman and his intuitions. His opposite, Julian Schwinger and his mathematical equations. The mercurial arrogance of Robert Oppenheimer. The humanity of Hans Bethe. Dyson contrasts the egotism of the physicists with the cooperative spirit of the engineers. He also astutely observes how all the Los Alamos alumni spoke nostalgically of the A-bomb project as a time of thrilling camaraderie. He is clear about the constant temptation facing scientists of treating all questions, even those with vast moral consequences, as merely technical questions. He humanizes the public perception of Edward Teller, who spoke against Oppenheimer at the latter's security hearings. The scientists, all intellectual giants, are shown to be human and fallible. The portraits, however, are not malicious. They are suffused with affection and admiration. Dyson is not therefore blind to faults.
The last section of the book, which takes up the subjects of space exploration and extra-terrestrials, is less interesting to me than the two earlier sections, "England" and "America." Someone of a more speculative cast of mind will enjoy these essays. When Dyson shades into mysticism in the last essay, finding a Mind behind the mind at work in making quantum observations, and the mind beyond brain cells and synapses, he loses me.
From his essays, it is clear that Dyson is that rare thing, a man deeply passionate about both science and literature. His essays make reference to Goethe's Faust, Auden and Isherwood's The Ascent of F6, H. G. Wells's The Island of Doctor Moreau, John Milton's great defense of press freedom Areopagitica. The title of the book comes from T. S. Eliot's poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." The first essay "The Magic City," my favorite of the book, is a meditation on the frightening pertinence of Edith Nesbit's children's story of the same name to the abuse of science in our contemporary world. Dyson himself is a very good writer, lucid and graceful.
The force of the writing comes not only from style, however, but also from the moral discrimination that Dyson wields in confronting his life and the world's problems. He blamed himself for not taking any action though he knew as a civilian statistician at the Research Division that the Allies' strategic bombing of German cities in the last years of WWII was not only unconscionable but also ineffective and lethal only to the lives of RAF pilots. He made the interesting argument that it was the Americans' success at firebombing Tokyo that paved the way to the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima. Having built up a Strategic Bombing Command at great cost, the Allies were almost bound to use it.
In another fine essay, "The Blood of a Poet," Dyson paid a heartfelt tribute to his Winchester schoolfriend Frank Thompson whose intelligence and liveliness marked him out as a leader of men. He was a poet too. He joined the Communist Party and enlisted in the war from the start in 1939. While playing the dangerous role of the Allies' liaison with Bulgarian partisans, he was captured and executed by the Fascists, but not before giving his audience their common sign of liberty, a salute with a clenched fist, and thus inspiring the men captured with him to do the same and march to their deaths with heads held high.
The other portraits in this book are of his fellow physicists at Cornell and Princeton. Dick Feynman and his intuitions. His opposite, Julian Schwinger and his mathematical equations. The mercurial arrogance of Robert Oppenheimer. The humanity of Hans Bethe. Dyson contrasts the egotism of the physicists with the cooperative spirit of the engineers. He also astutely observes how all the Los Alamos alumni spoke nostalgically of the A-bomb project as a time of thrilling camaraderie. He is clear about the constant temptation facing scientists of treating all questions, even those with vast moral consequences, as merely technical questions. He humanizes the public perception of Edward Teller, who spoke against Oppenheimer at the latter's security hearings. The scientists, all intellectual giants, are shown to be human and fallible. The portraits, however, are not malicious. They are suffused with affection and admiration. Dyson is not therefore blind to faults.
The last section of the book, which takes up the subjects of space exploration and extra-terrestrials, is less interesting to me than the two earlier sections, "England" and "America." Someone of a more speculative cast of mind will enjoy these essays. When Dyson shades into mysticism in the last essay, finding a Mind behind the mind at work in making quantum observations, and the mind beyond brain cells and synapses, he loses me.
January 18, 2013
I first encountered the author by references to "Dyson Spheres"--an idea which he credits to Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker--in various books and by his having provided a foreword to a science fiction novel I'd read. Then, more recently, going through about twenty years of back issues of the New York Review of Books, I found that many of the best science reviews were by him. This led me to pick up his pseudo-autobiography when encountering it at the Evanston Library booksale room a couple of days ago.
I call this a pseudo-autobiography because it was published as a volume in a series of books designed to familiarize laypersons with modern physical sciences. The authors, all prominent scientists, could pretty much do what they wanted and Dyson chose--as he does in many of his NY Review articles--to mix personal anecdotes and a rough chronology of his life with snippets about the very diverse kinds of scientific work he has engaged in. This work has ranged from mathematics, to theoretical physics, to astrophysics, to nuclear technology, to cybernetics etc. Then, canibalizing from other publications, he ends the whole with some scientific prognostications.
If it weren't for the fact that some of the patchwork assemblage towards the book's end doesn't fit seamlessly I'd give this book five stars. The first half of it, the most autobiographical portion, is of a piece and very well written, even quite moving, particularly when he mixes anecdote and poetry to make an ethical point.
I call this a pseudo-autobiography because it was published as a volume in a series of books designed to familiarize laypersons with modern physical sciences. The authors, all prominent scientists, could pretty much do what they wanted and Dyson chose--as he does in many of his NY Review articles--to mix personal anecdotes and a rough chronology of his life with snippets about the very diverse kinds of scientific work he has engaged in. This work has ranged from mathematics, to theoretical physics, to astrophysics, to nuclear technology, to cybernetics etc. Then, canibalizing from other publications, he ends the whole with some scientific prognostications.
If it weren't for the fact that some of the patchwork assemblage towards the book's end doesn't fit seamlessly I'd give this book five stars. The first half of it, the most autobiographical portion, is of a piece and very well written, even quite moving, particularly when he mixes anecdote and poetry to make an ethical point.
May 11, 2016
Dyson is a brilliant scientist and a born contrarian. He also writes with depth and beauty. This book is one part memoir, one part reflection on science and society, one part speculation about nature. Despite being some decades old. the book feels fresh, and most of it is still exactly as relevant as when it was written.
Here is one passage that I especially liked. It describes a part of my feeling about science that I had never seen described before: "Much of the joy of science is is the joy of solid work done by skilled workers. Many of us are happy to spend our lives in collaborative efforts where to be reliable is more important than to be original. There is great satisfaction in building good tools for other people to use. We do not all have the talent or ambition to become prima donnas. The essential factor which keeps the scientific enterprise healthy is a shared respect for quality. Everybody can take pride in the quality of his own work, and we expect rough treatment from our colleagues whenever we produce something shoddy. The knowledge that quality counts makes even routine tasks rewarding."
One of the main social divisions in postwar American science is how people felt about Oppenheimer and the hydrogen bomb, and this shows up in just about every memoir or biography from the period. Teller, Alvarez, von Neumann and Lawrence were in favor of the super, and distrustful of Oppenheimer. Most of the rest of the community was loyal to Oppenheimer, skeptical of the super, and furious at Teller. Dyson, being a contrarian, somehow managed to stay friends with Teller while also respectful to Oppenheimer and skeptical of the bomb.
Here is one passage that I especially liked. It describes a part of my feeling about science that I had never seen described before: "Much of the joy of science is is the joy of solid work done by skilled workers. Many of us are happy to spend our lives in collaborative efforts where to be reliable is more important than to be original. There is great satisfaction in building good tools for other people to use. We do not all have the talent or ambition to become prima donnas. The essential factor which keeps the scientific enterprise healthy is a shared respect for quality. Everybody can take pride in the quality of his own work, and we expect rough treatment from our colleagues whenever we produce something shoddy. The knowledge that quality counts makes even routine tasks rewarding."
One of the main social divisions in postwar American science is how people felt about Oppenheimer and the hydrogen bomb, and this shows up in just about every memoir or biography from the period. Teller, Alvarez, von Neumann and Lawrence were in favor of the super, and distrustful of Oppenheimer. Most of the rest of the community was loyal to Oppenheimer, skeptical of the super, and furious at Teller. Dyson, being a contrarian, somehow managed to stay friends with Teller while also respectful to Oppenheimer and skeptical of the bomb.
July 15, 2012
Some thoughts in lieu of a genuine, full-fledged review; I read the book too long ago to have a complete recollection.
If, within the field of science, the terms "great thinker" or "genius" evoke for you no one other than Albert Einstein and perhaps Stephen Hawking, reading this book will reveal another to you. Unlike some great thinkers, Dyson is also not merely a capable writer but an admirable stylist, who is equally at ease in recounting personal history and in discussing science, arguing military and political strategy where weapons are concerned, or speculating about a future in space.
Three randomly chosen elements of this book that made a mark on me:
1) Dyson discusses what should've been a simple design issue with the Lancaster bomber--if a hatch were widened, the emergency exit of aircrew during WWII bombing raids would've been easier, probably saving lives. (As I recall, the hatch was big enough for a man but not a man already wearing a parachute.) But the peculiar British inflexibility in military thinking blocked this as well as another potential improvement.
2) Dyson recounts his thinking on the 1986 disarmament talks between Reagan and Gorbachev in Reykjavik, Iceland, in which the possibility of total bilateral nuclear disarmament stalled over a quibble about Reagan's SDI (the so-called "Star Wars" missile-defense system). Reasonable minds have differed on this outcome, but Dyson's arguments left me in no doubt that the agreement that didn't happen would've been preferable and that Reagan more than Gorbachev was responsible for the failure.
3) As part of a broader treatment of the possibilities for human life in space, Dyson engages in some estimates of the costs of two privately funded colonization efforts from the past--the Mayflower pilgrims and the Mormon pioneers who settled Utah--and supposes that homesteading the asteroids might be feasible on the same privately funded basis, and even at roughly the same cost in man-years of income per family as the Mayflower expedition.
In light of number three, I can't help wondering whether the cost calculations today would be different, and also whether any of the buccaneer capitalists who are developing ways for the wealthy to take short thrill rides into space are also thinking farther ahead. If they aren't, someone should be. As Stephen Hawking has argued, our current planet may become less habitable over time (just as Hawking's body has done); it'd be smart for us to consider other places to live.
If, within the field of science, the terms "great thinker" or "genius" evoke for you no one other than Albert Einstein and perhaps Stephen Hawking, reading this book will reveal another to you. Unlike some great thinkers, Dyson is also not merely a capable writer but an admirable stylist, who is equally at ease in recounting personal history and in discussing science, arguing military and political strategy where weapons are concerned, or speculating about a future in space.
Three randomly chosen elements of this book that made a mark on me:
1) Dyson discusses what should've been a simple design issue with the Lancaster bomber--if a hatch were widened, the emergency exit of aircrew during WWII bombing raids would've been easier, probably saving lives. (As I recall, the hatch was big enough for a man but not a man already wearing a parachute.) But the peculiar British inflexibility in military thinking blocked this as well as another potential improvement.
2) Dyson recounts his thinking on the 1986 disarmament talks between Reagan and Gorbachev in Reykjavik, Iceland, in which the possibility of total bilateral nuclear disarmament stalled over a quibble about Reagan's SDI (the so-called "Star Wars" missile-defense system). Reasonable minds have differed on this outcome, but Dyson's arguments left me in no doubt that the agreement that didn't happen would've been preferable and that Reagan more than Gorbachev was responsible for the failure.
3) As part of a broader treatment of the possibilities for human life in space, Dyson engages in some estimates of the costs of two privately funded colonization efforts from the past--the Mayflower pilgrims and the Mormon pioneers who settled Utah--and supposes that homesteading the asteroids might be feasible on the same privately funded basis, and even at roughly the same cost in man-years of income per family as the Mayflower expedition.
In light of number three, I can't help wondering whether the cost calculations today would be different, and also whether any of the buccaneer capitalists who are developing ways for the wealthy to take short thrill rides into space are also thinking farther ahead. If they aren't, someone should be. As Stephen Hawking has argued, our current planet may become less habitable over time (just as Hawking's body has done); it'd be smart for us to consider other places to live.
January 18, 2023
His autobiography, and it's a great book. I've read it at least twice, and will again.
Ari has a good 5-star review here. Excerpt:
"Here is one passage that I especially liked. It describes a part of my feeling about science that I had never seen described before: "Much of the joy of science is is the joy of solid work done by skilled workers. Many of us are happy to spend our lives in collaborative efforts where to be reliable is more important than to be original. There is great satisfaction in building good tools for other people to use. We do not all have the talent or ambition to become prima donnas. The essential factor which keeps the scientific enterprise healthy is a shared respect for quality. Everybody can take pride in the quality of his own work, and we expect rough treatment from our colleagues whenever we produce something shoddy. The knowledge that quality counts makes even routine tasks rewarding."
Amen!
I don't give many 5-star ratings, nor do I reread autobiographies often. I did both for this one. Dyson is one of my scientific heroes. He led a full life, and stayed active and skeptical right to the end. He got a lot of flack for his skepticism about Climate Change, which I share, and he was right: a scientist who isn't skeptical isn't really a scientist! Indeed, many so-called "Climate scientists" treat their beliefs more as a religion than as science! Feh.
Ari has a good 5-star review here. Excerpt:
"Here is one passage that I especially liked. It describes a part of my feeling about science that I had never seen described before: "Much of the joy of science is is the joy of solid work done by skilled workers. Many of us are happy to spend our lives in collaborative efforts where to be reliable is more important than to be original. There is great satisfaction in building good tools for other people to use. We do not all have the talent or ambition to become prima donnas. The essential factor which keeps the scientific enterprise healthy is a shared respect for quality. Everybody can take pride in the quality of his own work, and we expect rough treatment from our colleagues whenever we produce something shoddy. The knowledge that quality counts makes even routine tasks rewarding."
Amen!
I don't give many 5-star ratings, nor do I reread autobiographies often. I did both for this one. Dyson is one of my scientific heroes. He led a full life, and stayed active and skeptical right to the end. He got a lot of flack for his skepticism about Climate Change, which I share, and he was right: a scientist who isn't skeptical isn't really a scientist! Indeed, many so-called "Climate scientists" treat their beliefs more as a religion than as science! Feh.
July 16, 2020
Contains many of Dyson's classic essays from the 1970s about humanity's search for extraterrestrials and visions of a future greening of the galaxy. There are also essays about his life, his work as a physicist, but the brilliance of the essays lies in weaving all his varied experience together in highly readable prose.
More about this book at SciFi Mind.
More about this book at SciFi Mind.
May 19, 2020
Several years ago, I read Feynman's Pleasure of finding things out, with a foreword from Freeman Dyson. In merely a page and half, he seemed to have captured the essence of Feynman, and with such beauty. Ever since I wanted to read more from Dyson.
About the book: The central theme of "Disturbing the Universe" is the ethical responsibility that is often associated with the development of science and technology, whether it be related to nuclear power and weapons, space exploration, power generation, or gene editing. To quote the author, "It makes no sense to separate science from technology, technology from ethics, or ethics from religion".
What I like: The book is written as a mixture of memoirs, autobiographical accounts, and the author's vision for the future of technology and space exploration. It is written in a very simple and direct manner. What I love, above all, is that throughout the book Freeman Dyson references history, arts, and literature (stories, poems) to compare and complement the subject matter, giving the book a subtle poetic tone.
About the book: The central theme of "Disturbing the Universe" is the ethical responsibility that is often associated with the development of science and technology, whether it be related to nuclear power and weapons, space exploration, power generation, or gene editing. To quote the author, "It makes no sense to separate science from technology, technology from ethics, or ethics from religion".
What I like: The book is written as a mixture of memoirs, autobiographical accounts, and the author's vision for the future of technology and space exploration. It is written in a very simple and direct manner. What I love, above all, is that throughout the book Freeman Dyson references history, arts, and literature (stories, poems) to compare and complement the subject matter, giving the book a subtle poetic tone.
November 8, 2019
excellent, excellent book.
January 29, 2024
In 2012, for the 50th anniversary of the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, New Scientist held a contest for its readers to vote for a curated list of what it called the 25 Most Influential Popular Science books. I resolved to eventually read all of them and after a couple year hiatus, this makes number 16 for me.
I didn’t realize this was a memoir. I was somewhat familiar with Dyson, the sphere being one (but he only popularized it, it turns out, “Some science fiction writers have wrongly given me the credit for inventing the idea of an artificial biosphere. In fact, I took the idea from Olaf Stapledon, one of their own colleagues”). And that he was on the wrong side of climate change. He was involved with quite a bit and I found his story enlightening. Like the source of the title:
“And indeed there will be time
To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair...
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
t. s. eliot, The Love-Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, 1917”
Dyson includes several poem fragments. I’ve not yet been able to get enough understanding of poetry to pull anything from it, so, props to him. “For insight into human affairs I turn to stories and poems rather than to sociology. This is the result of my upbringing and background. I am not able to make use of the wisdom of the sociologists because I do not speak their language. ” Great fiction asks great questions… Tom Peters. I have more work to do.
I’m not sure why it was on that original list of 25, but it is still a good read. Now to decide which will be next.
Curated notes:
“She [Edith Nesbit] wrote The Magic City in 1910, when she was fifty-two. By that time her personal struggles were over and she could view the world with a certain philosophic calm.”
I like that.
“It makes no sense to me to separate science from technology, technology from ethics, or ethics from religion. I am talking here to unscientific people who ultimately have the responsibility for guiding the growth of science and technology into creative rather than destructive directions. If you, unscientific people, are to succeed in this task, you must understand the nature of the beast you are trying to control.”
[on Isaac Newton] “If he were not gifted with extraordinary strength of character, he could not do what he does in science.”
Newton? The man who excoriated anyone who disagreed with him?Yeah… strength of character… right.
“E. T. Bell’s book Men of Mathematics, a collection of biographies of the great mathematicians. This is a splendid book for a young boy to read (unfortunately, there is not much in it to inspire a girl, with Sonya Kowalewska allotted only half a chapter),”
One for The List that grows beyond the time I have to read.
“Technology has made evil anonymous. Through science and technology, evil is organized bureaucratically so that no individual is responsible for what happens.”
And it has only gotten more so.
“After a few months I was able to identify the quality that I found strange and attractive in the American students, They lacked the tragic sense of life which was deeply ingrained in every European of my generation. They had never lived with tragedy and had no feeling for it. Having no sense of tragedy, they also had no sense of guilt. They seemed very young and innocent although most of them were older than I was. They had come through the war without scars. ”
Pre 9/11 of course, but even with that, not much has changed.
[on Feynman] “Dick was also a profoundly original scientist. He refused to take anybody’s word for anything. This meant that he was forced to rediscover or reinvent for himself almost the whole of physics. It took him five years of concentrated work to reinvent quantum mechanics. He said that he couldn’t understand the official version of quantum mechanics that was taught in textbooks, and so he had to begin afresh from the beginning. ”
[on Edward Teller] “A careful reading of his testimony at the trial shows that he intended no personal betrayal. He wanted only to destroy Oppenheimer’s political power, not to damage Oppenheimer personally. But the mood of that time made such fine distinctions meaningless. ”
“Already in 1958 we could see that Von Braun’s moon ships, the ships that were to be used for the Apollo voyages to the moon ten years later, would cost too much and do too little. In many ways the Apollo ships were like the V-2 rockets. Both were brainchildren of Wernher von Braun. Both were magnificent technological achievements. Both were far too expensive for the limited job they were designed to do. ”
This still has not changed.
[on the Cuban Missile Crisis] “For example, in I960 we enjoyed a superiority in offensive missiles while the Soviet Union concealed its weakness by maintaining a missile bluff. We then demolished the Soviet missile bluff as conspicuously as possible with public statements of the results of U-2 photography, and so forced the Soviet Union to replace its fictitious missile force by a real one. It would have been much wiser for us to have left the Soviet bluff intact.”
[on a paper by John Phillips] “The media, as soon as they got hold of John’s story, exploited it with little regard for truth and with absolutely no regard for public safety. ”
Nothing new to see here. Move along.
“Most of the biological inventions which Aldous Huxley used a few years later as background for his novel Brave New World were cribbed from Haldane’s Daedalus. Haldane’s vision of a future society, with universal contraception, test-tube babies, and free use of psychotropic drugs, became a part of the popular culture of our century through Huxley’s brilliant dramatization. ”
“It is easy to imagine a highly intelligent society with no particular interest in technology. It is easy to see around us examples of technology without intelligence. When we look into the universe for signs of artificial activities, it is technology and not intelligence that we must search for. ”
SETT doesn’t ring as nicely as SETI
“The difference between green and gray is better explained by examples than by definitions. Factories are gray, gardens are green. Physics is gray, biology is green. Plutonium is gray, horse manure is green. Bureaucracy is gray, pioneer communities are green. Self-reproducing machines are gray, trees and children are green. Human technology is gray, God’s technology is green. Clones are gray, clades are green. Army field manuals are gray, poems are green.”
“In other words, to provide a permanently renewable energy supply for the whole world would only require us to duplicate on a worldwide scale the environmental and financial sacrifices that the United States has made for the automobile. The people of the United States considered the costs of the automobile to be acceptable. I do not venture to guess whether they would consider the same costs worth paying again for a clean and inexhaustible supply of energy. ”
Nope.
“In space as on earth, technology must be cheap if it is to be more than a plaything of the rich.”
Predicting the future of today?
“These notes are not intended to be complete. I put them here to avoid peppering the text with footnotes.”
I don’t find footnotes bothersome. Quite the opposite, actually.
I didn’t realize this was a memoir. I was somewhat familiar with Dyson, the sphere being one (but he only popularized it, it turns out, “Some science fiction writers have wrongly given me the credit for inventing the idea of an artificial biosphere. In fact, I took the idea from Olaf Stapledon, one of their own colleagues”). And that he was on the wrong side of climate change. He was involved with quite a bit and I found his story enlightening. Like the source of the title:
“And indeed there will be time
To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair...
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
t. s. eliot, The Love-Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, 1917”
Dyson includes several poem fragments. I’ve not yet been able to get enough understanding of poetry to pull anything from it, so, props to him. “For insight into human affairs I turn to stories and poems rather than to sociology. This is the result of my upbringing and background. I am not able to make use of the wisdom of the sociologists because I do not speak their language. ” Great fiction asks great questions… Tom Peters. I have more work to do.
I’m not sure why it was on that original list of 25, but it is still a good read. Now to decide which will be next.
Curated notes:
“She [Edith Nesbit] wrote The Magic City in 1910, when she was fifty-two. By that time her personal struggles were over and she could view the world with a certain philosophic calm.”
I like that.
“It makes no sense to me to separate science from technology, technology from ethics, or ethics from religion. I am talking here to unscientific people who ultimately have the responsibility for guiding the growth of science and technology into creative rather than destructive directions. If you, unscientific people, are to succeed in this task, you must understand the nature of the beast you are trying to control.”
[on Isaac Newton] “If he were not gifted with extraordinary strength of character, he could not do what he does in science.”
Newton? The man who excoriated anyone who disagreed with him?Yeah… strength of character… right.
“E. T. Bell’s book Men of Mathematics, a collection of biographies of the great mathematicians. This is a splendid book for a young boy to read (unfortunately, there is not much in it to inspire a girl, with Sonya Kowalewska allotted only half a chapter),”
One for The List that grows beyond the time I have to read.
“Technology has made evil anonymous. Through science and technology, evil is organized bureaucratically so that no individual is responsible for what happens.”
And it has only gotten more so.
“After a few months I was able to identify the quality that I found strange and attractive in the American students, They lacked the tragic sense of life which was deeply ingrained in every European of my generation. They had never lived with tragedy and had no feeling for it. Having no sense of tragedy, they also had no sense of guilt. They seemed very young and innocent although most of them were older than I was. They had come through the war without scars. ”
Pre 9/11 of course, but even with that, not much has changed.
[on Feynman] “Dick was also a profoundly original scientist. He refused to take anybody’s word for anything. This meant that he was forced to rediscover or reinvent for himself almost the whole of physics. It took him five years of concentrated work to reinvent quantum mechanics. He said that he couldn’t understand the official version of quantum mechanics that was taught in textbooks, and so he had to begin afresh from the beginning. ”
[on Edward Teller] “A careful reading of his testimony at the trial shows that he intended no personal betrayal. He wanted only to destroy Oppenheimer’s political power, not to damage Oppenheimer personally. But the mood of that time made such fine distinctions meaningless. ”
“Already in 1958 we could see that Von Braun’s moon ships, the ships that were to be used for the Apollo voyages to the moon ten years later, would cost too much and do too little. In many ways the Apollo ships were like the V-2 rockets. Both were brainchildren of Wernher von Braun. Both were magnificent technological achievements. Both were far too expensive for the limited job they were designed to do. ”
This still has not changed.
[on the Cuban Missile Crisis] “For example, in I960 we enjoyed a superiority in offensive missiles while the Soviet Union concealed its weakness by maintaining a missile bluff. We then demolished the Soviet missile bluff as conspicuously as possible with public statements of the results of U-2 photography, and so forced the Soviet Union to replace its fictitious missile force by a real one. It would have been much wiser for us to have left the Soviet bluff intact.”
[on a paper by John Phillips] “The media, as soon as they got hold of John’s story, exploited it with little regard for truth and with absolutely no regard for public safety. ”
Nothing new to see here. Move along.
“Most of the biological inventions which Aldous Huxley used a few years later as background for his novel Brave New World were cribbed from Haldane’s Daedalus. Haldane’s vision of a future society, with universal contraception, test-tube babies, and free use of psychotropic drugs, became a part of the popular culture of our century through Huxley’s brilliant dramatization. ”
“It is easy to imagine a highly intelligent society with no particular interest in technology. It is easy to see around us examples of technology without intelligence. When we look into the universe for signs of artificial activities, it is technology and not intelligence that we must search for. ”
SETT doesn’t ring as nicely as SETI
“The difference between green and gray is better explained by examples than by definitions. Factories are gray, gardens are green. Physics is gray, biology is green. Plutonium is gray, horse manure is green. Bureaucracy is gray, pioneer communities are green. Self-reproducing machines are gray, trees and children are green. Human technology is gray, God’s technology is green. Clones are gray, clades are green. Army field manuals are gray, poems are green.”
“In other words, to provide a permanently renewable energy supply for the whole world would only require us to duplicate on a worldwide scale the environmental and financial sacrifices that the United States has made for the automobile. The people of the United States considered the costs of the automobile to be acceptable. I do not venture to guess whether they would consider the same costs worth paying again for a clean and inexhaustible supply of energy. ”
Nope.
“In space as on earth, technology must be cheap if it is to be more than a plaything of the rich.”
Predicting the future of today?
“These notes are not intended to be complete. I put them here to avoid peppering the text with footnotes.”
I don’t find footnotes bothersome. Quite the opposite, actually.
January 4, 2012
My wife received this book in the mail from a Hungarian Anthropologist working in Australia. She respects him for his knowledge and success. He sent it to her because he said it was an insightful read. We have had it sitting around for a few years and she has been too busy to read it. I have lugged it around from the US, England, Hungary and now Grenada. I tried to start it once but it was awkward to hold and with two pages being on one and being bound on the short side of the paper. Now I said I was going to get into it and finish it, and that's precisely what I did.
It is a book that covers most of the man's fascinating lifetime and highlighting the most prominent and interesting thoughts, projects and people that Freeman Dyson came across. He epitomized my thirst for knowledge and understanding of the world. By teaching himself differential equations as a youth in Winchester to trying to understand England's obsession with history. I was also introduced to the work "The Magic City" and the visions of its author for future dilemmas. He also delved into Faust. His "matter of factness" when discussing these amazing topics and ideas made them not seem to unattainable, and made me want to delve into these overwhelming thinkers and their understanding of the world.
He goes on to talk about his amazing work as a physicist at Cornell, Princeton and many other universities. His work with the Los Alamos group is particularly intriguing. I don't want to give away the whole book, but I will highlight some interesting topics: World Defense, Nuclear Disarmament, The Island of Doctor Moreau, cloning, Thought experiments, UFO's, Space Exploration/Colonization and of course God and the Argument for Design.
Inspirational and thought provoking. If I were a teacher I would make this required reading regardless of the course.
It is a book that covers most of the man's fascinating lifetime and highlighting the most prominent and interesting thoughts, projects and people that Freeman Dyson came across. He epitomized my thirst for knowledge and understanding of the world. By teaching himself differential equations as a youth in Winchester to trying to understand England's obsession with history. I was also introduced to the work "The Magic City" and the visions of its author for future dilemmas. He also delved into Faust. His "matter of factness" when discussing these amazing topics and ideas made them not seem to unattainable, and made me want to delve into these overwhelming thinkers and their understanding of the world.
He goes on to talk about his amazing work as a physicist at Cornell, Princeton and many other universities. His work with the Los Alamos group is particularly intriguing. I don't want to give away the whole book, but I will highlight some interesting topics: World Defense, Nuclear Disarmament, The Island of Doctor Moreau, cloning, Thought experiments, UFO's, Space Exploration/Colonization and of course God and the Argument for Design.
Inspirational and thought provoking. If I were a teacher I would make this required reading regardless of the course.
June 26, 2012
I'll admit I knew little of Freeman Dyson until hearing him interviewed on one of my favorite podcasts. Based on that interview, I made it a point to read this book. A physicist, astronomer, and mathematician, Dyson shows himself to be more of a deep thinker and man of letters than one might normally (and therefore narrow-mindedly, I might add) expect from a scientist with ties to Robert Oppenheimer, Edward Teller, and Los Alamos. With all that is happening today at the Fukushima nuclear power facility, Dyson's message regarding the human impact of technology - written in 1979 - is chillingly prescient.
March 1, 2014
Freeman Dyson is always worth reading. Extremely intelligent (a nuclear physicist), articulate, critical of his own thinking and others, unpretentious and humane. He started his career during WWII and wrote an interesting book review published this week (60 years later on 2/20/14) in the NYRB. He also turned me on to E. Nesbit, another excellent mind. You should read this and anything else you can find by him.
August 3, 2025
1. “Anger is creative, depression is useless.”
2. “After he had collected the information on escape raids, many months before the command would officially admit that a problem existed. After the problem had officially been recognized, it took many months to persuade the companies who built the Lancaster that they ought to do something about it. After the companies started to work on the problem, it took many months for a new hatch to be designed. A modified hatch ultimately arrived at our office, but the war ended before it could be put into production.
When the total casualty figures for Bomber Command were added up at the end of the war, the results were as follows: Killed in operations, 47,130. Bailed out and survived, 12,790, including 138 who died as prisoners of war. Escape rate, 21.3%.
I always believed that we could have come close to the American escape rate of 50% if our commanders had seriously been concerned about the problem.”
3. “Prelude in E-flat minor.”
4. “It is impossible to make real progress in technology without gambling, and the trouble with gambling is that you do not always win.”
5. “The fundamental problem of the nuclear power industry is not reactor safety, not waste disposal, not the dangers of nuclear proliferation, real though all these problems are. The fundamental problem of the industry is that nobody any longer has any fun building reactors.”
6. [Reference: book] “Rockets, Missiles, and Space Travel.”
7. “This is an extreme example of the stupidities which often occur when bureaucracy takes control of scientific projects. Such stupidities are by no means an exclusively German phenomenon.”
(V-2 German rocket project)
8. “A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few original ideas as possible. There are no prima donnas in engineering.”
9. “In the running after bombs and bloody horrors, the media are only reflecting the morbid tastes of the public. A fascination with violence lies somewhere deep in the hearts of all of us. At heart, we are not much better than the crowds which used to come towards the Roman Coliseum 1900 years ago to watch the gladiators hack each other to pieces.”
10. [Reference: book] The Time Machine – H.G. Wells
11. [Reference: book] Haldane – Daedalus, or Science and the Future
12. “So I advise you to watch out when you write the rules governing research with recombinant DNA. Write the rules flexibly and enforce them humanely so that when some biologist as brilliant and as arrogant as Oppenheimer tries to set himself above the rules, he may not be perceived by his colleagues and by the public as a hero.”
13. [Reference: poem – T.S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”]
“And indeed there will be time,
There will be time to wonder, ‘Do I dare?’ and, ‘Do I dare?’
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
The bald spot in the middle of my hair…
Do I dare disturb the universe?”
2. “After he had collected the information on escape raids, many months before the command would officially admit that a problem existed. After the problem had officially been recognized, it took many months to persuade the companies who built the Lancaster that they ought to do something about it. After the companies started to work on the problem, it took many months for a new hatch to be designed. A modified hatch ultimately arrived at our office, but the war ended before it could be put into production.
When the total casualty figures for Bomber Command were added up at the end of the war, the results were as follows: Killed in operations, 47,130. Bailed out and survived, 12,790, including 138 who died as prisoners of war. Escape rate, 21.3%.
I always believed that we could have come close to the American escape rate of 50% if our commanders had seriously been concerned about the problem.”
3. “Prelude in E-flat minor.”
4. “It is impossible to make real progress in technology without gambling, and the trouble with gambling is that you do not always win.”
5. “The fundamental problem of the nuclear power industry is not reactor safety, not waste disposal, not the dangers of nuclear proliferation, real though all these problems are. The fundamental problem of the industry is that nobody any longer has any fun building reactors.”
6. [Reference: book] “Rockets, Missiles, and Space Travel.”
7. “This is an extreme example of the stupidities which often occur when bureaucracy takes control of scientific projects. Such stupidities are by no means an exclusively German phenomenon.”
(V-2 German rocket project)
8. “A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few original ideas as possible. There are no prima donnas in engineering.”
9. “In the running after bombs and bloody horrors, the media are only reflecting the morbid tastes of the public. A fascination with violence lies somewhere deep in the hearts of all of us. At heart, we are not much better than the crowds which used to come towards the Roman Coliseum 1900 years ago to watch the gladiators hack each other to pieces.”
10. [Reference: book] The Time Machine – H.G. Wells
11. [Reference: book] Haldane – Daedalus, or Science and the Future
12. “So I advise you to watch out when you write the rules governing research with recombinant DNA. Write the rules flexibly and enforce them humanely so that when some biologist as brilliant and as arrogant as Oppenheimer tries to set himself above the rules, he may not be perceived by his colleagues and by the public as a hero.”
13. [Reference: poem – T.S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”]
“And indeed there will be time,
There will be time to wonder, ‘Do I dare?’ and, ‘Do I dare?’
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
The bald spot in the middle of my hair…
Do I dare disturb the universe?”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 5, 2017
I enjoyed Freeman Dyson’s personal recollections in Disturbing the Universe (1979). He recounts one of those early encounters, this one between Szilard and Bethe:
“The physicist Leo Szilard once announced to his friend Hans Bethe that he was thinking of keeping a diary: ‘I don’t intend to publish it; I am merely going to record the facts for the information of God.’ ‘Don’t you think God knows the facts?’ Bethe asked. ‘Yes,’ said Szilard. ‘He knows the facts, but He does not know this version of the facts.’”
I quickly related to the technological aspects of his experiences, although, from the perspective of a community of engineers [1]. Dyson writes, “In our world, thousands of scientists play with millions of toys, but only a few of their toys grow big. The majority of technological ventures remain toys, of interest only to specialists and historians.” He adds, “A small number succeed spectacularly and become part of the fabric of our lives. Even with the advantage of hindsight it is difficult to understand why one technology is overwhelmingly successful and another is stillborn.”
Most of us recognize the success of the toy we call the iPhone, while other toys, such as Microsoft’s Zune, a media player, never gained traction in the marketplace. In my experience I witnessed the success of SONET in optical transport [2] while its competing technology, Syntran (Synchronous Transmission), never caught fire. In another technological example, VHS tapes became popular while the competing BETA tape technology fizzled.
In another recollection, Dyson offers a self-analysis, “I was, and have always remained, a problem solver rather than a creator of ideas. I cannot, as Bohr and Feynman did, sit for years with my whole mind concentrated upon one deep question.” Dyson explains, “I am interested in too many different things . . . I followed my destiny into pure mathematics, into nuclear engineering, into space technology and astronomy, solving problems that [Oppenheimer] rightly considered remote from the mainstream of physics.”
Many of us are like Dyson. We chose to toil on many different projects in our work careers, and often, these assignments may stray from our field of education and training. Like Dyson, we enjoy solving problems and completing an assortment of projects.
Check out his book. You’ll enjoying completing it.
[1] See A World Perspective through 21st Century Eyes for more on the engineering perspective of the world.
http://www.trafford.com/bookstore/boo...
[2] For more on the power of SONET see The Upstart Startup: How Cement Transformed Cisco.
https://www.createspace.com/5141130
“The physicist Leo Szilard once announced to his friend Hans Bethe that he was thinking of keeping a diary: ‘I don’t intend to publish it; I am merely going to record the facts for the information of God.’ ‘Don’t you think God knows the facts?’ Bethe asked. ‘Yes,’ said Szilard. ‘He knows the facts, but He does not know this version of the facts.’”
I quickly related to the technological aspects of his experiences, although, from the perspective of a community of engineers [1]. Dyson writes, “In our world, thousands of scientists play with millions of toys, but only a few of their toys grow big. The majority of technological ventures remain toys, of interest only to specialists and historians.” He adds, “A small number succeed spectacularly and become part of the fabric of our lives. Even with the advantage of hindsight it is difficult to understand why one technology is overwhelmingly successful and another is stillborn.”
Most of us recognize the success of the toy we call the iPhone, while other toys, such as Microsoft’s Zune, a media player, never gained traction in the marketplace. In my experience I witnessed the success of SONET in optical transport [2] while its competing technology, Syntran (Synchronous Transmission), never caught fire. In another technological example, VHS tapes became popular while the competing BETA tape technology fizzled.
In another recollection, Dyson offers a self-analysis, “I was, and have always remained, a problem solver rather than a creator of ideas. I cannot, as Bohr and Feynman did, sit for years with my whole mind concentrated upon one deep question.” Dyson explains, “I am interested in too many different things . . . I followed my destiny into pure mathematics, into nuclear engineering, into space technology and astronomy, solving problems that [Oppenheimer] rightly considered remote from the mainstream of physics.”
Many of us are like Dyson. We chose to toil on many different projects in our work careers, and often, these assignments may stray from our field of education and training. Like Dyson, we enjoy solving problems and completing an assortment of projects.
Check out his book. You’ll enjoying completing it.
[1] See A World Perspective through 21st Century Eyes for more on the engineering perspective of the world.
http://www.trafford.com/bookstore/boo...
[2] For more on the power of SONET see The Upstart Startup: How Cement Transformed Cisco.
https://www.createspace.com/5141130
January 23, 2020
More an anthology than memoir, Disturbing the Universe has been most a enjoyable read. Despite what the book description above states, this is most certainly not an autobiography, though there are biographical portions. Some chapters, essays, were written specifically for this book and some had been published previously in The New Yorker. Dyson is a polymath; he is not an intellectual of a single, narrow focus. His work spans the astounding progress in physics through much of the twentieth century, working (often one-on-one) with many of the greater lights in the field. Although mathematics and science are his work and passion, literature, culture and the arts are touchstones, never far afield from his thoughts. His very human side, along with that of his luminary associates, is woven throughout. He offered a mea culpa for some of the work he did and for his defense of it. The man has a conscience.
A theme of the book is that human actions have consequences. Dyson explores the actions and interprets probable consequences, moral, technical, cultural and political. His thoughts on clades and clones WRT language I’ve seen explored by others who came to similar conclusions. His is a particularly clear essay. Elsewhere he explores what I call “big ideas” that many people classify as science fiction. The notion of what we called the Dyson Sphere he credits to philosopher and science fiction author Olaf Stapledon; Dyson has considered the idea deeply enough and publicly enough that it acquired his name, though he wished it had not.
This was written for a general audience and it need not be read as you would read a novel or a textbook. After the first few chapters’ laying of groundwork you could set it aside then come back later to read another chapter or two. You won’t be force fed mathematics or the sciences and knowledge of them is not needed to understand what Dyson says here. The goal is to help non-scientists gain some sense of what goes on in science work and learn a little about how they view the world and their work. He writes clearly and gracefully, at times conversationally. The final two chapters are the ones I most savor. They are Dyson in contemplation and they bring to my mind Bertrand Russell’s observation that, “The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.”
I don’t know why I took me so long to pick this up but I assure you that I’ll pick it up again.
The book was first published through the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Public Understanding Program whose goal is stated by them as:
“To support authors in the research and writing of a wide range of books aimed at public understanding of science and technology.”
A theme of the book is that human actions have consequences. Dyson explores the actions and interprets probable consequences, moral, technical, cultural and political. His thoughts on clades and clones WRT language I’ve seen explored by others who came to similar conclusions. His is a particularly clear essay. Elsewhere he explores what I call “big ideas” that many people classify as science fiction. The notion of what we called the Dyson Sphere he credits to philosopher and science fiction author Olaf Stapledon; Dyson has considered the idea deeply enough and publicly enough that it acquired his name, though he wished it had not.
This was written for a general audience and it need not be read as you would read a novel or a textbook. After the first few chapters’ laying of groundwork you could set it aside then come back later to read another chapter or two. You won’t be force fed mathematics or the sciences and knowledge of them is not needed to understand what Dyson says here. The goal is to help non-scientists gain some sense of what goes on in science work and learn a little about how they view the world and their work. He writes clearly and gracefully, at times conversationally. The final two chapters are the ones I most savor. They are Dyson in contemplation and they bring to my mind Bertrand Russell’s observation that, “The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.”
I don’t know why I took me so long to pick this up but I assure you that I’ll pick it up again.
The book was first published through the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Public Understanding Program whose goal is stated by them as:
“To support authors in the research and writing of a wide range of books aimed at public understanding of science and technology.”
January 16, 2021
It's taken me four years to finish this book. For a long time, it was prematurely my favorite book of all time. I hold a special place in my heart for this book, which I inherited from a crate of books from my old math professor. I thought the title was pretentious and had never heard of Freeman Dyson. I did not know what to expect. Then I started reading.
1. Freeman is a one-of-a-kind polymath. His hands have been in some of the most influential physics, math, politics, and research and development in history. And he's also incredibly well-read, well-traveled, well-acquainted, and creative. His descriptions of people are unparalleled. One of my lifelong goals was to see Freeman Dyson speak in Princeton, but unfortunately he passed away last year.
2. The writing is dense. I think this is why it took me so long to read. Each chapter is an essay. Some essays are really technical. Some of the politics went over my head. This was published over forty years ago. One ding against Freeman: I've heard that he did not really believe in the urgency of global warming. But I don't remember that being touched on much in this book. I skimmed most of Part III - I did not find his writing about the future and space as interesting.
3. The reason why this is one of my favorite books is because of these chapters:
- Chapter 4: The Blood of a Poet. I remember exactly where I was when I read this. I was in the kitchen of a house where I was the counselor for a sleep-away camp. I was glued to the page and about to cry. It was one of the most intense emotions I had felt while reading and as I skim through the chapter now, I cannot appreciate with what intensity I felt - but I believe it.
- Chapter 6: A Ride to Albuquerque. This one features Richard Feynman. I often compare Dyson to Feynman, but this chapter I think exhibits why I prefer Dyson a lot more.
- Chapter 8: Prelude in E-Flat Minor. This is my all-time recommended chapter. How the Prelude comes in is so lovely. The politics of the atomic bomb were so intense and controversial. I cannot imagine being involved.
- Chapter 14: The Murder of Dover Sharp. The opening story is kind of crazy and the discussion of the test ban treaty sounded like the most perfect radio bit you'd hear from NPR.
4. Reading these essays in pieces, over four years, has meant that it's been a constant source of inspiration. I think it's incredibly smart writing and it's proof that people who study math and science do have an invaluable and irrefutable place in politics, foreign affairs, policy, and philosophy.
I will likely reread the above chapters several times in my lifetime.
1. Freeman is a one-of-a-kind polymath. His hands have been in some of the most influential physics, math, politics, and research and development in history. And he's also incredibly well-read, well-traveled, well-acquainted, and creative. His descriptions of people are unparalleled. One of my lifelong goals was to see Freeman Dyson speak in Princeton, but unfortunately he passed away last year.
2. The writing is dense. I think this is why it took me so long to read. Each chapter is an essay. Some essays are really technical. Some of the politics went over my head. This was published over forty years ago. One ding against Freeman: I've heard that he did not really believe in the urgency of global warming. But I don't remember that being touched on much in this book. I skimmed most of Part III - I did not find his writing about the future and space as interesting.
3. The reason why this is one of my favorite books is because of these chapters:
- Chapter 4: The Blood of a Poet. I remember exactly where I was when I read this. I was in the kitchen of a house where I was the counselor for a sleep-away camp. I was glued to the page and about to cry. It was one of the most intense emotions I had felt while reading and as I skim through the chapter now, I cannot appreciate with what intensity I felt - but I believe it.
- Chapter 6: A Ride to Albuquerque. This one features Richard Feynman. I often compare Dyson to Feynman, but this chapter I think exhibits why I prefer Dyson a lot more.
- Chapter 8: Prelude in E-Flat Minor. This is my all-time recommended chapter. How the Prelude comes in is so lovely. The politics of the atomic bomb were so intense and controversial. I cannot imagine being involved.
- Chapter 14: The Murder of Dover Sharp. The opening story is kind of crazy and the discussion of the test ban treaty sounded like the most perfect radio bit you'd hear from NPR.
4. Reading these essays in pieces, over four years, has meant that it's been a constant source of inspiration. I think it's incredibly smart writing and it's proof that people who study math and science do have an invaluable and irrefutable place in politics, foreign affairs, policy, and philosophy.
I will likely reread the above chapters several times in my lifetime.
November 7, 2019
This is one of the most unique physicist autobiographies I've read and surprisingly related to my own life. Most importantly, I think Dyson is deeply honest and vulnerable about his true ideas and feelings about futility of war, the extent of consciousness, the threat of nuclear weapons, what a good long term future would look like and the way he weaved these observations and thoughts with poetry, music and theater worked very well.
Dyson's first hand portraits of Feynman, Bethe, Teller, Oppenheimer, von Neumann and others are truly unique. Bethe was Dyson's advisor at Cornell. Dyson took a cross-country road trip with Feynman where he worked out how to mathematically formalize Feynman's path integral ideas. Oppenheimer was Dyson's boss at the Institute of Advanced Study. Dyson and Teller became lifelong friends. Dyson mentions von Neumann's work on self-replication and the idea of universal constructors which I hadn't fully understood before.
Dyson was part of General Atomics in La Jolla and walked with Niels Bohr on the beaches of La Jolla Shores and launched scale models of nuclear bomb powered rockets off Point Loma! These revelations imbue my own hometown with so much more history and excitement in my eyes. His insights on the stifling effects of bureaucracy, the importance of play and excitement in research, his willingness to change his mind all really resonated with me. And of course, his clear thought experiments on the effectively unlimited value and power of self-replicating machines matched closely with my own views and were even better articulated.
The end on the world soul and Cosmic Unity was a little hokey, but as a whole, this was just what I was looking for at just the right time.
Dyson's first hand portraits of Feynman, Bethe, Teller, Oppenheimer, von Neumann and others are truly unique. Bethe was Dyson's advisor at Cornell. Dyson took a cross-country road trip with Feynman where he worked out how to mathematically formalize Feynman's path integral ideas. Oppenheimer was Dyson's boss at the Institute of Advanced Study. Dyson and Teller became lifelong friends. Dyson mentions von Neumann's work on self-replication and the idea of universal constructors which I hadn't fully understood before.
Dyson was part of General Atomics in La Jolla and walked with Niels Bohr on the beaches of La Jolla Shores and launched scale models of nuclear bomb powered rockets off Point Loma! These revelations imbue my own hometown with so much more history and excitement in my eyes. His insights on the stifling effects of bureaucracy, the importance of play and excitement in research, his willingness to change his mind all really resonated with me. And of course, his clear thought experiments on the effectively unlimited value and power of self-replicating machines matched closely with my own views and were even better articulated.
The end on the world soul and Cosmic Unity was a little hokey, but as a whole, this was just what I was looking for at just the right time.
May 22, 2020
This is a book I tried because it was lying around the house, not because I picked it out myself, so this review may be a little unfair.
He lost me in the first two chapters. Really the first chapter, but I gave it another shot.
I do like science a lot, but I think I'd much rather read a book on science, or listen to a lecture on science by Dyson than read this. This book is a physicist trying to do something an entertainer or writer usually does, and, while he does a good job of it, it's just not engaging enough.
Especially the first chapter... he explains that his aim is partly biography, partly to show people how scientists look at the world, partly to recount stories of famous scientists, especially nuclear ones. In extreme long form. Peppered with sometimes fun, often tedious literary quotes.
I'm just not a big enough fan of Dyson (may he rest in peace) or these other scientists to trudge through this book. Maybe if a lot of the chaff was removed and we got the barebones, best anecdotes, with nothing else.
As for his other goal, I'm not really interested in some philosophical musings about science, scientists, nuclear technology etc. Kind of the opposite. Just give me the stories, I can make my own mind up thanks.
He lost me in the first two chapters. Really the first chapter, but I gave it another shot.
I do like science a lot, but I think I'd much rather read a book on science, or listen to a lecture on science by Dyson than read this. This book is a physicist trying to do something an entertainer or writer usually does, and, while he does a good job of it, it's just not engaging enough.
Especially the first chapter... he explains that his aim is partly biography, partly to show people how scientists look at the world, partly to recount stories of famous scientists, especially nuclear ones. In extreme long form. Peppered with sometimes fun, often tedious literary quotes.
I'm just not a big enough fan of Dyson (may he rest in peace) or these other scientists to trudge through this book. Maybe if a lot of the chaff was removed and we got the barebones, best anecdotes, with nothing else.
As for his other goal, I'm not really interested in some philosophical musings about science, scientists, nuclear technology etc. Kind of the opposite. Just give me the stories, I can make my own mind up thanks.
January 9, 2020
Interesting and discussion provoking... would be great for group discussion.
OK, this book wasn't my cup of tea (as British say) ... I'm a Coffee drinker! :-p
This said, I think Dyson's autobiography goes a far way to enlighten us to his thinking. He tells many stories which provide insight into his interactions with the many science+tech luminary he routinely ran in to and worked with in many cases.
Some of Dyson's stories I truly enjoyed reading (e.g. his trip to Canada with his son) But I found many to be like me reading a history book or historical novel... I never liked reading these (for unknown reason)... I do like to know and understand History and think it's very important for us all to do... so, I'm not certain why I always find it monotonous ... hmm.
So, OK, while "I" didn't like Dyson's writing style for this book... I think many of You will and you'll get a bunch of useful insight in Dyson... who (also IMO) turns out to be quite a SJW fanatic too! Oh well, there's no accounting for aspirations of a strong central world government tell us how many children we can have if we still live on planet... is there? :-p
OK, this book wasn't my cup of tea (as British say) ... I'm a Coffee drinker! :-p
This said, I think Dyson's autobiography goes a far way to enlighten us to his thinking. He tells many stories which provide insight into his interactions with the many science+tech luminary he routinely ran in to and worked with in many cases.
Some of Dyson's stories I truly enjoyed reading (e.g. his trip to Canada with his son) But I found many to be like me reading a history book or historical novel... I never liked reading these (for unknown reason)... I do like to know and understand History and think it's very important for us all to do... so, I'm not certain why I always find it monotonous ... hmm.
So, OK, while "I" didn't like Dyson's writing style for this book... I think many of You will and you'll get a bunch of useful insight in Dyson... who (also IMO) turns out to be quite a SJW fanatic too! Oh well, there's no accounting for aspirations of a strong central world government tell us how many children we can have if we still live on planet... is there? :-p
May 25, 2025
Freeman Dyson is the famous astrophysicist who is well known for having come up with the concept of Dyson Spheres, a potential marker of intelligent civilisations in space.
His memoir is a collection of short essays and the first few ones which detail his experiences in World War 2 are the best among the lot. The latter articles become a bit philosophical. The essay on Dyson spheres (he never calls them so and were coined later by someone else) wasn’t as interesting as i expected it to be. There is no common thread among these essays, just like most of the episodes in our life. But Dyson had been part of many important US govt funded initiatives in the 60s and 70s, so he is able to knowledgeably write about multiple concepts. It’s so interesting to see that many of the new technologies that Dyson was enthusiastic of, as being able to solve the woes of humanity, never came to pass - such as solar pools. Also his optimistic vision of humanity coming together and colonising space seems very unlikely now in our divided times
His memoir is a collection of short essays and the first few ones which detail his experiences in World War 2 are the best among the lot. The latter articles become a bit philosophical. The essay on Dyson spheres (he never calls them so and were coined later by someone else) wasn’t as interesting as i expected it to be. There is no common thread among these essays, just like most of the episodes in our life. But Dyson had been part of many important US govt funded initiatives in the 60s and 70s, so he is able to knowledgeably write about multiple concepts. It’s so interesting to see that many of the new technologies that Dyson was enthusiastic of, as being able to solve the woes of humanity, never came to pass - such as solar pools. Also his optimistic vision of humanity coming together and colonising space seems very unlikely now in our divided times
September 15, 2017
This is a memoir written in 1979 by a physicist/nuclear engineer/futurist consisting of three parts. The first is about his childhood and youth and England. The second and longest part is about his professional life in America. And the third is a series of connected essays that deal with the philosophy of science and the potential discoveries that we have in store for us. Much of the book deals with the Cold War and nuclear proliferation. Dyson does a lot of moralizing and he seems totally captive to a liberal democratic viewpoint that is somewhat tepid and at times seems contradictory to what he believes about science. Dyson's vision of the future was very ambitious and he imagined that we would be much further along than we are today. This slowness is in part due to the political system and ideals he advocates. I wonder if he still thinks the same way today, given the current state of the world. Still, this was a thought provoking read, in particular the last part.
April 29, 2020
I have forgotten where I saw a recommendation to read something by Freeman Dyson; it may have been a suggestion to read his collected letters. But when I saw he had written a memoir, I decided to read this instead.
I think fascinating is a good one word description of this book.
You get a look at and a feel for the time and places he lived in, so it is very interesting in its historical story. He was a physicist, mathematician, and problem solver whose interests ranged across many varied fields of science, mathematics, philosophy, and the humanities.
It’s a look back at the scientific and political world of the forties to the seventies, told in an interesting and mostly engaging style. The scientific explanations were clear and relatively easy to understand.
I read a lot of fiction, but always keep one or two nonfiction books on the go. This was a very good choice for me; mind broadening.
I think fascinating is a good one word description of this book.
You get a look at and a feel for the time and places he lived in, so it is very interesting in its historical story. He was a physicist, mathematician, and problem solver whose interests ranged across many varied fields of science, mathematics, philosophy, and the humanities.
It’s a look back at the scientific and political world of the forties to the seventies, told in an interesting and mostly engaging style. The scientific explanations were clear and relatively easy to understand.
I read a lot of fiction, but always keep one or two nonfiction books on the go. This was a very good choice for me; mind broadening.
June 8, 2020
I re-read this after a long interval (possibly 30 years or more) because I picked it off the shelf for a Facebook list. I forgot that it is a collection of essays forming a piece-wise memoir, with the gaps and repetitions that implies. The first couple are the best, with the memories of Dyson's formation as a mathematical physicist, and his experiences of Operations Research group in London in World War II. Later essays are weaker, because patchier, and displaying some of the arrogance of a top physicist in the 1950s. This book had a big influence on me, planting the idea of mathematical physics as an aspiration, showing how finely-tuned the universe is for life, as well as other ideas. Dyson was a nuclear enthusiast with dreams of space colonisation, which was fun then for a reader of Asimov and Heinlein, but looks naive and hubristic now.
August 24, 2023
Freeman Dyson's "Disturbing the Universe" is a thoughtful and demanding work. His views on nuclear power and weapons are as relevant then as for today in a world with Russian nuclear saber rattling and threats to Ukraine's nuclear power plants. His personal stories about his son are heartwarming.
Reading his side of the story on quantum elctrodynamics is great as he worked the mathematical side of Richard Feynman, Julian Schwinger, and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga theories. His work with Project Orion and thoughts on interstellar travel with respect to machine automata is cogent. There are other topics in his book which takes one to pause and ponder the implications for humanity, especially when he references "The Curve of Binding Energy" which was one of the first books to highlight the dangers of terrorists to the nuclear weapons and civilian power industries.
Highly recommended.
Reading his side of the story on quantum elctrodynamics is great as he worked the mathematical side of Richard Feynman, Julian Schwinger, and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga theories. His work with Project Orion and thoughts on interstellar travel with respect to machine automata is cogent. There are other topics in his book which takes one to pause and ponder the implications for humanity, especially when he references "The Curve of Binding Energy" which was one of the first books to highlight the dangers of terrorists to the nuclear weapons and civilian power industries.
Highly recommended.
November 4, 2023
"We are scientists second and human beings first. We become politically involved because knowledge implies responsibility." -Freeman Dyson-
This phrase struck me years ago when I read Dr. Dyson's book. Then, as a new graduate student in physics, I enjoyed the collection of poetry and personal thoughts, and the anecdotes of famous physicists whom I worshipped. Then, it inspired me to continue with my work. Now, with PhD in hand, I'm combing the country for a physics job and I find DISTURBING THE UNIVERSE to be an enormously comforting companion. Freeman Dyson is a complex and highly evolved man who pondered both physical law and the higher moralities binding those who wield this knowledge. I use this book as a roadmap, giving a context in which to think about research and life. I highly recommend this book.
This phrase struck me years ago when I read Dr. Dyson's book. Then, as a new graduate student in physics, I enjoyed the collection of poetry and personal thoughts, and the anecdotes of famous physicists whom I worshipped. Then, it inspired me to continue with my work. Now, with PhD in hand, I'm combing the country for a physics job and I find DISTURBING THE UNIVERSE to be an enormously comforting companion. Freeman Dyson is a complex and highly evolved man who pondered both physical law and the higher moralities binding those who wield this knowledge. I use this book as a roadmap, giving a context in which to think about research and life. I highly recommend this book.
May 31, 2018
I found this to be a captivating autobiography. Freeman's experience during WWII is one of the reasons he is writes, "I am convinced that to avoid nuclear war it is not sufficient to be afraid of it. It is necessary to be afraid, but it is equally necessary to understand. And the first step in understanding is to recognize that the problem of nuclear war is basically not technical but human and historical. If we are to avoid destruction we must first of all understand the human and historical context out of which destruction arises." He not only has a grasp of how violence breeds violence, but he also is optimistic and imaginative, such as when he writes about using stellar starlight to move vessels through space.
January 14, 2019
I enjoyed reading this memoir and liked the Dyson focused on the moments of his life in which the moral/philosophical questions he asked were zoomed-out. There were definitely some more intimate moments, but for the large part, we learn more about crisis scientists face when engaging with or fighting against war. I learned a lot about strategic bombing, for instance, and its overall failure as a military tactic. Never thought I'd be so interested in that, but the moral questions he brings up as a mathemetician working for an aerial squadron during WWII seem to keep coming up, even as he moves into theoretical terrain of colonizing a galaxy.
I also appreciated his gift of reading and responding to poetry as he navigated the harder questions. Very fun.
I also appreciated his gift of reading and responding to poetry as he navigated the harder questions. Very fun.
February 19, 2025
For me, this book was very very good. I appreciate hearing the story about Freeman Dyson from his early ages all the way to a much older age when he was teaching lectures. I really appreciated hearing this side as a mathematician, a physicist and an astronomer. For me personally, studying these subjects was also very very good and I appreciate hearing somebody from his experience talking about Los Alamos, talking about Robert Oppenheimer and other very great scientists that he was with. I really enjoyed this book and I would gladly recommend it to anybody.
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