Freeman Dyson (1923–2020)
Author of Disturbing the Universe
About the Author
Freeman Dyson, editor, professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, has contributed to the fields of mathematics, physics, astronomy, and biology. He is the author of numerous books, including Weapons and Hope, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1984.
Image credit: Freeman Dyson Photo from Long Now Seminar, San Francisco, October 05, 2005
Works by Freeman Dyson
Początki życia 2 copies
Turbare l'universo 1 copy
de eros à gaia 1 copy
PRINCIPLES OF MECHANISM 1 copy
Światy wyobraźni 1 copy
Freeman Dyson 1 copy
Infinite in all direction 1 copy
El científico rebelde 1 copy
Associated Works
The Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective (1973) — Contributor, some editions — 1,139 copies, 10 reviews
What Is Your Dangerous Idea? Today's Leading Thinkers on the Unthinkable (2007) — Contributor — 668 copies, 8 reviews
The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space (1976) — Introduction, some editions — 419 copies, 3 reviews
A Glorious Accident: Understanding Our Place in the Cosmic Puzzle (1993) — Contributor — 236 copies, 8 reviews
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Dyson, Freeman
- Legal name
- Dyson, Freeman John
- Birthdate
- 1923-12-15
- Date of death
- 2020-02-28
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Cornell University
Trinity College, University of Cambridge (BA|1945)
Winchester School, Winchester, England, UK - Occupations
- professor
theoretical physicist
mathematician - Organizations
- Space Studies Institute (2003)
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University
Cornell University
Royal Air Force (WWII) - Awards and honors
- Royal Society (Fellow, 1952)
American Academy of Arts & Sciences (1958)
U.S. National Academy of Sciences (1964)
Bavarian Academy of Sciences (Corresponding Member, 1975)
American Philosophical Society (1976)
l'Académie des Sciences (Associé Etranger1989) (show all 28)
London Mathematical Society (Honorary Member, 2000)
Russian Academy of Sciences (Foreign Member, 2011)
American Physical Society (Fellow)
Henri Poincaré Prize (2012)
Templeton Prize (2000)
Joseph P. Burton Forum Award (1999)
Antonio Feltrinelli International Prize (1996)
Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science (1996)
Enrico Fermi Award (1995)
Wright Prize (1994)
Oersted Medal (1991)
Matteucci Medal (1990)
Britannica Award (1990)
Gemant Award (1988)
National Books Critics Circle Award for Non-Fiction (1984)
Wolf Prize (1981)
Harvey Prize (1977)
J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Prize (1970)
Max Planck Medal (1969)
Hughes Medal (1968)
Lorentz Medal (1966)
Danny Heineman Prize (1965) - Relationships
- Dyson, George B. (son)
Dyson, Esther (daughter)
Dyson, George (2) (father) - Short biography
- Freeman J. Dyson was born in 1923 in Crowthorne, England. He received a B.A. in mathematics from the University of Cambridge in 1945 and came to the United States in 1947 as a Commonwealth Fellow at Cornell University. He settled in the USA permanently in 1951, became a professor of physics at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton in 1953, and retired as Professor Emeritus in 1994. Professor Dyson began his career as a mathematician but then turned to the exciting new developments in physics in the 1940s, particularly the theory of quantized fields. He wrote two papers on the foundations of quantum electrodynamics which have had a lasting influence on many branches of modern physics. He went on to work in condensed-matter physics, statistical mechanics, nuclear engineering, climate studies, astrophysics and biology. Beyond his professional work in physics, Freeman Dyson had a keen awareness of the human side of science and of the human consequences of technology. His books for the general public include "Disturbing the Universe," "Weapons and Hope," "Infinite in All Directions," "Origins of Life," "The Sun, the Genome and the Internet", the essay collection "The Scientist as Rebel", and "Maker of Patterns: An Autobiiography Through Letters" (2018). In 2000 he was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion and in 2012 he was awarded the Henri Poncare Prize. Freeman J. Dyson died February 28, 2020 in Princeton, New Jersey at the age of 96.
- Nationality
- UK (birth)
USA (naturalized, 1957) - Birthplace
- Crowthorne, Berkshire, England, UK
- Places of residence
- Plainsboro Township, New Jersey, USA
- Place of death
- Plainsboro Township, New Jersey, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- New Jersey, USA
Members
Reviews
Dated yet prescient. Lays out the thoughts and strategies behind Cold War nuclear planning in clear, concise language But by far the best and most interesting part was the authors inclusion of some of his own family history and story, in chapter 9, covering the period from the start of the first world war to the start of the second. His insights on the social and psychological aspects of that period in Britain are simply fascinating. Well worth a read.
I have known about Freeman Dyson for a long time - I was a physics undergrad at Princeton; he was next door, at the Institute. He is a top-notch physicist and visionary. This really gives him license for all sorts of self indulgent speculation etc. This is a great book because, while it is surely speculative, it is not self-indulgent. He provides us with wonderful frameworks to think along with him. In many cases I don't see things the way he does, but what splendid generosity it is for him show more to invite us to look through his telescope!
Dyson sees that resource constraints will really be pinching us in the 21st Century. But he doesn't seem to recognize the extent to which that will impact the practices of the sciences. He tells us on pg. 198 that, "The main social benefit provided by pure science in esoteric fields is to serve as a welfare program for scientists and engineers." This is already a huge insight. But what is going to happen to science and engineering when the funding dries up? He can see, on pg 201, that, "If technology continues along its present course, ignoring the needs of the poor and showering benefits upon the rich, the poor will sooner or later rebel against the tyranny of technology and turn to irrational and violent remedies." Of course, who is rich and who is poor? The present instability of so many facets of our system of living, from politics and finance to farms and fisheries, is likely to topple many now standing tall. Dyson surely sits in the quintessential ivory tower. He does a wonderful job of trying to look beyond its confines, but doesn't seem ready to see that the tower itself is as liable to tumble as any other institution.
Dyson assumes that space travel is inevitable, along with the other tremendous directions of technological advancement such as computers and genetic engineering. He envisions life spreading through the galaxy over the next million years. But think: on a cosmic time scale, a million years is practically nothing. If life can spread through the galaxy in a million years, it has already done so. As Sun Ra observed, "It's after the end of the world, don't you know that yet?" It could well have happened that life came to earth, has come to earth repeatedly, on board comets or meteorites etc. A galaxy filled with life might be experienced by its inhabitants... just like this!
This is a short book, easy to read, filled with insights. Dyson helps us to think for ourselves on his scale, which is a profound service, however one feels about his particular thoughts on this or that topic. show less
Dyson sees that resource constraints will really be pinching us in the 21st Century. But he doesn't seem to recognize the extent to which that will impact the practices of the sciences. He tells us on pg. 198 that, "The main social benefit provided by pure science in esoteric fields is to serve as a welfare program for scientists and engineers." This is already a huge insight. But what is going to happen to science and engineering when the funding dries up? He can see, on pg 201, that, "If technology continues along its present course, ignoring the needs of the poor and showering benefits upon the rich, the poor will sooner or later rebel against the tyranny of technology and turn to irrational and violent remedies." Of course, who is rich and who is poor? The present instability of so many facets of our system of living, from politics and finance to farms and fisheries, is likely to topple many now standing tall. Dyson surely sits in the quintessential ivory tower. He does a wonderful job of trying to look beyond its confines, but doesn't seem ready to see that the tower itself is as liable to tumble as any other institution.
Dyson assumes that space travel is inevitable, along with the other tremendous directions of technological advancement such as computers and genetic engineering. He envisions life spreading through the galaxy over the next million years. But think: on a cosmic time scale, a million years is practically nothing. If life can spread through the galaxy in a million years, it has already done so. As Sun Ra observed, "It's after the end of the world, don't you know that yet?" It could well have happened that life came to earth, has come to earth repeatedly, on board comets or meteorites etc. A galaxy filled with life might be experienced by its inhabitants... just like this!
This is a short book, easy to read, filled with insights. Dyson helps us to think for ourselves on his scale, which is a profound service, however one feels about his particular thoughts on this or that topic. show less
The Sun, The Genome, and The Internet: Tools of Scientific Revolution (New York Public Library Lectures in Humanities) by Freeman J. Dyson
Drawn from a series of public lectures, this is the mind of Freeman Dyson at its most fertile. The book bubbles with creative ideas even if my instinct throughout was to treat it as yet another item of that curious genre - speculative science faction.
He writes clearly and, very unusually amongst the top level of scientists let alone applied mathematicians, his genius is capable of understanding history and society. Indeed, I suspect that he would have made a very fine historian if he had show more taken a very different route in life.
However, a decade and a half on from the lectures, very little of what he has predicted (all of which I have no doubt is feasible) has come to pass. He seems to have been looking in the wrong direction more than once. His speculations are more than a little utopian.
This is a little odd because he has a highly intelligent approach to the effect of politics on technological investment. There are some very acute observations on failures to be cost-effective. One might have expected him to have been a little more cautious on that ground alone.
While mildly stimulated, I did not get a great deal out of the book because it was simply not grounded enough in the world I think that I am living in. He was persuasive, as a Kuhn-sceptic, on one thing though - that technique and tools drive science as much as concepts and models.
His argument for scientific development as a craft process with many incremental changes and cross-fertilisations, with investment by scientists themselves in the machinery that enables discovery, is well taken. It made me rethink how thought and application exist in close dialectic.
But there is so much material here, so much inventiveness, so much intellectual creativity and so many leaps that the book leaves one wondering precisely what one has learned that is useful. That may be unfair but one wanted not more ideas but clearer thread for those already offered.
Like contemporary science fiction, speculative science faction throws so much at the reader that the tale often spins away far from the credible and the useful - and the human. That so little of the implicit prediction appears to be materially present today seems to confirm a lack of groundedness.
Oh, we poor mortals - unable to deliver what our intellectual gods demand of us! show less
He writes clearly and, very unusually amongst the top level of scientists let alone applied mathematicians, his genius is capable of understanding history and society. Indeed, I suspect that he would have made a very fine historian if he had show more taken a very different route in life.
However, a decade and a half on from the lectures, very little of what he has predicted (all of which I have no doubt is feasible) has come to pass. He seems to have been looking in the wrong direction more than once. His speculations are more than a little utopian.
This is a little odd because he has a highly intelligent approach to the effect of politics on technological investment. There are some very acute observations on failures to be cost-effective. One might have expected him to have been a little more cautious on that ground alone.
While mildly stimulated, I did not get a great deal out of the book because it was simply not grounded enough in the world I think that I am living in. He was persuasive, as a Kuhn-sceptic, on one thing though - that technique and tools drive science as much as concepts and models.
His argument for scientific development as a craft process with many incremental changes and cross-fertilisations, with investment by scientists themselves in the machinery that enables discovery, is well taken. It made me rethink how thought and application exist in close dialectic.
But there is so much material here, so much inventiveness, so much intellectual creativity and so many leaps that the book leaves one wondering precisely what one has learned that is useful. That may be unfair but one wanted not more ideas but clearer thread for those already offered.
Like contemporary science fiction, speculative science faction throws so much at the reader that the tale often spins away far from the credible and the useful - and the human. That so little of the implicit prediction appears to be materially present today seems to confirm a lack of groundedness.
Oh, we poor mortals - unable to deliver what our intellectual gods demand of us! show less
The Sun, The Genome, and The Internet: Tools of Scientific Revolutions (Nypl/Oup Lectures) by Freeman J. Dyson
I was surprised by this book. I thought it would just be all "wow, technology, cool." But it was actually about how to thoughtfully and ethically use technology to bring about social justice. Technology shouldn't just be about making new toys for the rich, but it should be about developing ways to level the playing field for everyone in the world. One thing I found that was very interesting was the accounts of how technological advances will often liberate one group of people while taking show more away the freedom of another group. One example given in the book was the rise of househould appliances in the early twentienth century. The servant class was done away with (in those days, middle class families might have multiple servants), but middle class women then lost much freedom when they had to return to household duties.
Dr. Dyson, a physicist, sees solar energy, genetic engineering, and the Internet as the tools to bring about this social revolution. I would be interested in seeing an updated version of this book because this was written over ten years ago, and a lot has changed since then. Internet access still isn't freely available everywhere, but it sure is better than it was in the late 90's. show less
Dr. Dyson, a physicist, sees solar energy, genetic engineering, and the Internet as the tools to bring about this social revolution. I would be interested in seeing an updated version of this book because this was written over ten years ago, and a lot has changed since then. Internet access still isn't freely available everywhere, but it sure is better than it was in the late 90's. show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 47
- Also by
- 15
- Members
- 3,119
- Popularity
- #8,193
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 38
- ISBNs
- 107
- Languages
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- Favorited
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