Freeman Dyson
Freeman Dyson
Freeman John Dyson FRSis an English-born American theoretical physicist and mathematician, known for his work in quantum electrodynamics, solid-state physics, astronomy and nuclear engineering. He is professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study, a Visitor of Ralston College, and a member of the Board of Sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists...
jobs technology effectiveness
The marketplace judges technologies by their practical effectiveness, by whether they succeed or fail to do the job they are designed to do.
technology government needs
What the world needs is a small, compact, flexible fusion technology that could make electricity where and when it is needed. The existing fusion program is leading to a huge source of centralized power, at a price that nobody except a government can afford.
firsts twenties physics
It has become part of the accepted wisdom to say that the twentieth century was the century of physics and the twenty-first century will be the century of biology.
revenge science boys
I belonged to a small minority of boys who were lacking in physical strength and athletic prowess. ... We found our refuge in science. ... We learned that science is a revenge of victims against oppressors, that science is a territory of freedom and friendship in the midst of tyranny and hatred.
ideas trying branches
The reason why new concepts in any branch of science are hard to grasp is always the same; contemporary scientists try to picture the new concept in terms of ideas which existed before.
details architecture study
The more I examine the universe and study the details of its architecture, the more evidence I find that the universe in some sense must have known that we were coming.
carbon-cycle tree atmosphere
We cannot hope to either understand or to manage the carbon in the atmosphere unless we understand and manage the trees and the soil too.
jesus hero japan
Walking the streets of Tokyo with Hawking in his wheelchair ... I felt as if I were taking a walk through Galilee with Jesus Christ [as] crowds of Japanese silently streamed after us, stretching out their hands to touch Hawking's wheelchair. ... The crowds had streamed after Einstein [on Einstein's visit to Japan in 1922] as they streamed after Hawking seventy years later. ... They showed exquisite choice in their heroes. ... Somehow they understood that Einstein and Hawking were not just great scientists, but great human beings.
education years best-year
We must be careful not to discourage our twelve-year-olds by making them waste the best years of their lives preparing for examinations.
dream tasks unpredictable
It is our task, both in science and in society at large, to prove the conventional wisdom wrong and to make our unpredictable dreams come true
dream landscape territory
Science is my territory, but science fiction is the landscape of my dreams.
law choices growth
Atoms are weird stuff, behaving like active agents rather than inert substances. They make unpredictable choices between alternative possibilities according to the laws of quantum mechanics. It appears that mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent inherent in every atom. The universe is also weird, with its laws of nature that make it hospitable to the growth of mind. I do not make any clear distinction between mind and God. God is what mind becomes when it passes beyond the scale of our comprehension.
moving technology space
It's not going to be just humans colonizing space, it's going to be life moving out from the Earth, moving it into its kingdom. And the kingdom of life, of course, is going to be the universe.
order normal climate
Climate change is part of the normal order of things, and we know it was happening before humans came.