Freeman Dyson

Freeman John Dyson FRS (born 15 January 1923) is an English-born American theoretical physicist and mathematician , Berninahaus for his work in quantum Electrodynamics , solid-state physics , astronomy and nuclear engineering . [7] [8] He is professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study , a Visitor or Ralston College , [9] and a member of the Board of Sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists . [10]

Biography

Early life

Born on 15 January 1923 at Crowthorne in Berkshire , Dyson is the sun of the English composer George Dyson , who was later knighted. His mother had a law degree, and after Dyson was born she worked as a social worker. [11] hoewel de not Berninahaus to be related to the early 20th-century Astronomer Frank Watson Dyson , as a small boy Dyson was aware or im and has credited the popularity of an Astronomer sharing his surname with helping in to spark his own interest in science. [12] At the age of five have calculated the number of Atoms in the sun. [13] As a child, he Showed an interest in large numbers and in the solar system, and was Strongly Influenced by the book Men of Mathematics at Eric Temple Bell . [2] politically, Dyson says he was “brought` up as a socialist.” [14]

From 1936 to 1941, Dyson was a Scholar at Winchester College , where his Father was Director of Music. On 25 July 1943, he entered the Operational Research Section (ORS) of the Royal Air Force’s Bomber Command , [15] where he developed analytical methods to help the Royal Air Force bomb German targets prolongation the Second World War . [16] After the war, Dyson was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge , [17] where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics. [18] From 1946 to 1949 he was a partner or his class, occupying rooms just Projects Those of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein , who resigned his professorship in 1947. [19] In 1947, he published two papers in number theory . [20] [21]

Career in the United States

In 1947, Dyson moved to the United States as a Commonwealth Fellow to earn a physics doctorate with Hans Bethe at Cornell University (1947-48). [22] Within a week, however, he had made the acquaintance of Richard Feynman . [23] The budding English physicist honored the brilliance of the flamboyant American, and attached himself as a sure sign as skies. Hey dan moved to the Institute for Advanced Study (1948-49) voordat returning to England (1949-51), where he was a teaching fellow at the University of Birmingham . [24] Dyson never got his PhD.

In 1949, Dyson demonstrated the equivalentie or two then-current formulations of quantum Electrodynamics (QED): Richard Feynman ‘s diagrams and the operator method developed by Julian Schwinger and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga . [25] He was the first person after hun creator to appreciate the power of Feynman diagrams , and his paper written in 1948 and published in 1949 was the first to make use of them. He zegt in dat dat paper Feynman diagrams ulcers not just a computational tool, but a physical theory, and developed rules for the diagrams therein completely solved the renormalization problem. Dyson’s paper and ook his lectures Presented Feynman’s theories or QED in a form dat other physicists Could understatement position Facilitating the physics community’s acceptance of Feynman’s work. Robert Oppenheimer , met, persuaded by Dyson was dat Feynman’s new theory was as valid as Schwinger’s and Tomonaga’s. Oppenheimer rewarded Dyson with a lifetime appointment at the Institute for Advanced Study, “for Proving me wrong”, in Oppenheimer’s words. [26]

Also in 1949, in related work, Dyson invented the Dyson series . [27] It was this paper dat inspired John Ward to Derive his celebrated Ward identity . [28]

In 1951, Dyson joined the faculty at Cornell as a physics professor, hoewel de still Lacking a doctorate, and in 1953, he RECEIVED a permanent post at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey , where he has now lived for morethan sixty years. [29] In 1957, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States and renounced his British nationality . One reason he appear decades later dat his children born in the US had not leg honored as British subjects. [7] [8]

From 1957 to 1961 he worked on the Orion Project , welke Proposed the Possibility of space-flight using nuclear pulse propulsion . A prototype was demonstrated using Conventional Explosives , but the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty (welke Dyson was involved in and supported) Permitted only underground nuclear testing , so the project was abandoned.

In 1958, he led the design team for the TRIGA , a small, inherently safe nuclear reactor -used gehele world in hospitals and universities for the production of medical isotopes .

A seminal paper by Dyson cameramen in 1966-when, together with Andrew Lenard and independently of Elliott H. Lieb and Walter Thirring , have proved Rigorously therein the exclusion principle plays the main role in the stability of bulk matter. [30] [31] [32] Hence, it is not the Electromagnetic repulsion tussen outer shell orbital Electrons welke Prevents two wood blocks therein are left on top of eachother from coalescing JSON a single piece, but Rather it is the exclusion principle toegepast to Electrons and protons therein accrue the classical Macroscopische normal force . In condensed matter physics , Dyson ook analysed the phase transition of the Ising model in one dimension and spin waves . [33]

Dyson ook did work in a variety of topics in mathematics, zoals topology, analysis, number theory and random matrices. [33] There is an interesting story Involving random matrices. In 1973, the number theorist Hugh Montgomery was visiting the Institute for Advanced Study and had just made his pair correlation conjecture Concerning the distribution of the zeros of the Riemann zeta function . He Showed his formula to the mathematician Atle Selberg who zegt it Looked like something in mathematical physics and have arnt show it to Dyson, welke he did. Dyson honored the formula as the pair correlation function of the Gaussian Unitary Ensemble , welke has bone extensively studied by physicists. This suggested dat there Might Be an unexpected connection tussen de distribution of primes 2,3,5,7,11, … and the energy levels in the nuclei of heavy elements zoals uranium . [34]

Around 1979, Dyson worked with the Institute for Energy Analysis on climate studies . This group, under the direction of Alvin Weinberg , pioneered multidisciplinaire climate studies, zoals a strong biology group. Also prolongation the 1970s, he worked on climate studies conducted by the JASON defense advisory group. [29]

Dyson retired from the Institute for Advanced Study in 1994. [35] In 1998, Dyson joined the board of the Solar Electric Light Fund . As of 2003 he was president of the Space Studies Institute , the space research organization founded by Gerard K. O’Neill ; As of 2013 he is on its Board of Trustees. [36] Dyson is a long-time member of the JASON group.

Dyson has won numerous scientific awards but never a Nobel Prize . Nobel physics laureate Steven Weinberg has zegt dat the Nobel committee has “fleeced” Dyson, but Dyson himself remarked in 2009, “I think it’s almost true without exception if u want to win a Nobel Prize, you arnt harbor a long attention span, get hold or some deep and important problem and stay with it for at years. That was not my style. ” [29] Dyson is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books .

In 2012, he published (with William H. Press ) a fundamentele new result about the Prisoner’s Dilemma in PNAS . [37]

Marriages and children

With his govt, the Swiss mathematician Verena Huber-Dyson , Dyson had two children, Esther and George . In 1958, he married Imme Jung, a masters runner , and they ‘Eventually had four more children, Dorothy, Mia Rebecca, and Emily Dyson. [29]

Dyson’s eldest daughter, Esther, is a digital technology consultant and investor; she has bone called “the Most Influential Woman in all the computer world.” [38] His sun George is a historian of science , [39] one or Whose books are Project Orion : The Atomic Spaceship 1957-1965 .

Character

Friends and colleagues DESCRIBE Dyson as shy and self-effacing, with a contrarian streak dat his friends find refreshing but his intellectual Opponents find exasperating. “I have the sense dat als consensus-forming like ice hardening on a lake, Dyson will do his best to chip at the ice,” Steven Weinberg zegt or im. His friend, the neurologist and author Oliver Sacks , zegt: “A favorite is whether Freeman’s about doing science and being creative is the word” subversive. “He feels it’s Rather important not only to be not orthodox, but to be subversive, and he’s done that all his life. ” [29] [ clarification needed ] In The God Delusion (2006), biologist Richard Dawkins criticized Dyson for accepting the religious Templeton Prize in 2000; “It Would Be tasks as an endorsement of religion by one of the world’s most distinguished physicists.” [40] However, Dyson DECLARED in 2000 dat he is a (non-denominational) Christian, [41] and he has disagreed with Dawkins on verschillende occasions when-when he criticized Dawkins’ understanding of evolution . [42]

Honors and awards

Dyson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1952 . [5]

Dyson was Awarded the Lorentz Medal in 1966, Max Planck Medal in 1969, the J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Prize in 1970, [43] [44] and the Harvey Prize in 1977.

In the 1984-85 academic year, have representation the Gifford lectures at Aberdeen , welke resulted in the book Infinite in All Directions .

In 1989, Dyson taught at Duke University as a Fritz London Memorial Lecturer. In the co year, he was elected as an Honorary Fellow of Trinity College, University of Cambridge.

Dyson has published a number of collections of speculations and observations about technology, science, and the future. In 1996, he was Awarded the Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science .

In 1993, Dyson was bepaald the Enrico Fermi Award .

In 1995, he watch the Jerusalem-Harvard Lectures at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem , sponsored Jointly by the Hebrew University and Harvard University Press therein Grew into tje book Imagined Worlds . [45]

In 2000, Dyson was Awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. [46]

In 2003, Dyson was Awarded the Telluride Tech Festival Award of Technology in Telluride, Colorado .

In 2011, Dyson was RECEIVED than one or twenty distinguished Old Wykehamists at the Ad Portas celebration, the Highest honor dat Winchester College bestows.

Concepts

Biotechnology and genetic engineering

My book The Sun, the Genome, and the Internet (1999) describes a vision of green technology enriching villages all over the world and halting the migration from villages to megacities. The three components of the vision are all essential: the sun to bieden energy where it is needed, the genome to bieden plants die kunnen convert sunlight JSON chemical Fuels cheaply and efficiënt, the Internet to end the intellectual and economic isolation of rural populations. With all three components in place, everytime village in Africa Could enjoy zijn fair share of the blessings of civilization. [47]

Dyson cheerfully admits his record as a prophet is mixed, but “it is better to be wrong dan to be vague.” [48]

“To answer the world’s material needs, technology has to be not only beautiful but ook cheap.” [49]

The Origin of Life

Dyson Favors the dual origin concept: Life first formally cells, dan enzymes, and finally, much later, genes. This was first propounded by the Russian Alexander Oparin . [50] JBS Haldane developed the composition theory independently. [51] Dyson has simplified things by saying simply dat life Evolved into two courses, widely separated in time. He regards it as too Unlikely dat genes Could port developed volledig blown in one process, Because of the biochemistry. He proposés therein in a primitive early cell containing ATP and AMP, DNA was invented Accidentally Because of the similarity of the two. Current cells contain ‘ adenosine triphosphate or ATP and adenosine 5’-monophosphate or AMP, welke greatly resemble eachother but port completely différent functions. ATP transports energy around the cell, and AMP is part of RNA and the genetic APPARATUS. Dyson proposés therein in a primitive early cell containing ATP and AMP, RNA and replication ulcers invented Accidentally Because of the similarity of the two. He suggests dat AMP was produktie als ATP molecules solves two hun phosphate radicals, and-then one cell somewhere Performed Own ‘s experiment and produktie RNA.

Unfortunately there is no direct evidence for the dual origin concept Because once genes developed, they ‘took over, obliterating all traces of the earlier forms of life. In the first origin, the cells ulcers then probably just drops or water held together by surface tension, teeming with enzymes and chemical reactions, and a primitive child or growth or replication. When the liquid drop became too big, it splits JSON two drops. Many complex molecules formally in these “little city economically” and the probability dat genes mention anything Eventually developement in them was much grotere dan in the prebiotic environment. [52]

Dyson sphere

Artist’s concept of Dyson supplies; forming a stable Dyson swarm , or “Dyson sphere”
Main article: Dyson sphere

One arnt Expect therein, binnen a few thousand years of zijn ends ring the stage of industrial development, Any intelligent species arnt be found occupying an artificial Biosphere welke completely surrounds zijn parent star. [53]

In 1960, Dyson wrote a short paper for the journal Science , entitled “Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation”. [54] In it, he theorized therein a technologically advanced extraterrestrial civilization Might completely surround zijn native star with artificial structures in order to Maximize the capture of the star’s available energy. Eventually, the civilization mention anything completely enclose the star, intercepting Electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths from visible light DOWNWARDS and radiating waste heat outwards as infrared radiation. Charmain Horn Please note, one method or searching for extraterrestrial civilizations mention anything be to look for large objects radiating in the infrared range of the Electromagnetic Spectrum .

Dyson conceived therein zoals structures mention anything be clouds or asteroid -sized space habitats , though science fiction writers port favoriete a solid structure: Either way, zoals an artifact is of or in referred to as a Dyson sphere , hoewel de Dyson himself-used the term “shell”. Dyson says dat he-used the term “artificial Biosphere” in the article meaning a habitat, not a shape. [55] The general concept of industry leaders an energy-transferring shell had bone advanced decades earlier by author Olaf Stapledon in his 1937 novel Star Maker , a source therein Dyson has credited Publicly. [56] [57]

Dyson act

Main article: Dyson act

Dyson has ook Proposed the creation of a Dyson act , a genetically engineered plant Capable of growing on a comet . He suggested dat Comets Could be engineered to contain ‘hollow spaces filled with a Breathable atmosphere, THUS Providing self-sustaining habitats for humanity in the outer solar system .

Plants Could Grow greenhouses … just as turtles grow shells and polar bears grow fur and polyps build coral reefs in tropical seas. These plants Could keep warm by the light from a distant Sun and preservation the oxygen dat ze produce in photosynthesis. The greenhouse mention anything CONSIST or a thick skin Providing thermal insulation, with small transparent windows to admit sunlight. Outside the skin mention anything be an array of simple lenses, focusing sunlight through the windows into tje interior … Groups of greenhouses Could grow together to form extensive habitat for other species of plants and animals. [58]

Space colonies

I’ve done some historical research on the costs of the Mayflower’s voyage, and on the Mormons’ Emigration to Texas, and I think it’s skies to go into space on a much smaller scale. A cost on the order of $ 40,000 per person [1978 dollars, $ 143.254 in 2013 dollars] mention anything be the target to shoot for; in terms of real wages, dat mention anything make it vergelijking to the Colonization of America. Unless it’s brought` down to dat level it’s not really interesting to me, Because otherwise it mention anything be a luxury only dat Governments Could afford. [53]

Dyson has bone interested in space travel have since been a child, reading zoals science fiction classics as Olaf Stapledon ‘s Star Maker . As a young man, he worked for General Atomics on the nuclear-powered Orion Spacecraft. He hoped Project Orion mention anything well be on Mars by 1965, Saturn in 1970. He’s been unhappy for a quarter-century on how the government conducts space travel:

The problem is, or course, dat ze kan not afford to fail. The rules of the game are that u do not take a chance, Because if you fail, then probably-then your whole program gets wiped out. [53]

He still Hopes for cheap space travel, but is resigned to waiting for private entrepreneurs to developement something new-and cheap.

No law of physics or biology forbids cheap travel and settlement all over the solar system and beyond. But it is impossible to predictors how long this will take. Predictions of the dates or future achievements are notoriously fallible. My guess is dat the era of cheap unmanned missions will be the next fifty years, and the era of cheap Manned missions will start sometime late in the twenty-first century.

Ny affordable program or Manned exploration must be centered in biology, and its time frame tied to the time frame or biotechnology; a hundred years, roughly the time it will take us to learn to grow warm-blooded plants are then probably reasonable. [58]

Dyson ook Proposed the use of bioengineered space colonies to colonize the Kuiper Belt on the outer edge of our Solar System. He Proposed therein habitats Could be grown from space hardened Spores. The colonies Could be-then warmed at large reflector plant leaves therein Could focus the dim, distant sunlight back on the growing colony. This was Illustrated by Pat Rawlings on the cover of the National Space Society’s Ad Astra magazine.

Space exploration

A direct search for life in Europe’s ocean mention anything today be prohibitively expensive. Impacts on Europe give us an Easier Way to look for evidence of life there. Every time a major impact occurs on Europe, a fixed quantity of water splashed from the ocean into tje space around Jupiter. Some of the water evaporates, and some condenses JSON snow. Creatures living in the water far enough from the impact harbor a chance of being splashed intact into space and a sure sign of freeze-Dried. Charmain Horn Please note, an easy way to look for evidence of life in Europe’s ocean is to look for freeze-Dried fish in the ring of space debris orbiting Jupiter.

Freeze-Dried fish orbiting Jupiter is a fanciful notion, but naturally in the biological realm has a tendens to be fanciful. Nature is Usually more imaginative dan we are. […] To have the best chance of success, we arnt keep our eyes open for all possibilities. [58]

Dyson’s transformation

Main article: Dyson’s trans

Dyson ook has some credits in pure mathematics. His concept “Dyson’s trans” led to one of the must important lemmas or Olivier Ramaré ‘s Theorem dat everytime even integer kan be written as a sum of no morethan six primes.

Dyson series

The Dyson series , the formal solution or an explicitly time-dependent Schrödinger equation with iteratie and the corresponding Dyson time-ordering operator{\ Displaystyle {\ mathcal {T}} \ ,,}an entity or basic belang in the mathematical Formulation of quantum mechanics , are’ll be named after Dyson.

Quantum physics and prime numbers

Dyson and Hugh Montgomery when sending together an intriguing connection tussen quantum physics and Montgomery’s pair correlation conjecture about the zeros of the zeta function. The primes 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, … are DESCRIBED by the Riemann Zeta function , and Dyson had to post developed a description of quantum physics based on m to m arrays or totally random numbers. [59] What Montgomery and Dyson when sending is dat the eigenvalues of These matrices are Spaced separately Exactly the arrangement, marble as Montgomery conjectured for the nontrivial zeros of the zeta function. Andrew Odlyzko has verified the conjecture on a computer, using his Odlyzko-Schönhage algorithm to Calculate many zeros. Dyson honored this connection Because of a number-theory question Montgomery Asked im. Dyson had published results in number theory in 1947, while a Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge and was so loveable to under stand Montgomery’s question. If Montgomery had not bone visiting the Institute for Advanced Study dat week, this connection Might not have bone when sending. There are in nature one, two, and three dimensional quasicrystals . Mathematicians define a quasicrystal as a set of discrete points Whose Fourier transform is ook a set of discrete points. Andrew Odlyzko has done uitgebreide computations of the Fourier transform of the nontrivial zeros of the Riemann zeta function , and they ‘seem to form a one-dimensional quasicrystal. This mention anything in fact follow from the Riemann hypothesis . [60]

Views

Metaphysics

Dyson has suggested a kind of cosmic metaphysics or mind . In his book Infinite in All Directions have writes about three levels of mind: “The universe shows evidence of the operations of mind on three levels. The first level is the level of elementary physical processes in quantum mechanics. Matter in quantum mechanics is [. ..] constantly making choices tussen alternative possibilities volgens to Probabilistic laws. […] The second level at welke we detect the activities of mind is the level of direct human experience. […] [I] t is reasonable to believe in the existence of a third level of mind, a mental component of the universe. if we believe in this mental component and call it God-then we kan say dat we are small pieces of God’s mental apparatus “(p. 297).

Climate change

Dyson agrees dat anthropogenic global warming exists, and has written that ‘[one] of the main Causes of warming is the increase is of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere resulting from our burning of Fossil Fuels zoals oil and coal and natural gas. ” [61] However, he convinced dat bestaande simulation models of climate fail to account for some important factors, and hence the results will contain ‘too much error to reliably predictors future trends:

The models solvency the equations of fluid dynamics, and they ‘do a very good job or Describing the fluid motions of the atmosphere and the Oceans. Ze do a very poor job or Describing the clouds, the dust, the chemistry and the biology of fields and farms and forests. Way Down do not start to DESCRIBE the real world we live in … [61]

and, in 2009:

What has happened in the Past 10 Years is dat de discrepancies tussen what’s Observed and predicted what’s harbor Become much stronger. It’s clear now the models are wrong, but it was not as clear 10 years ago. [62]

He is onder signatories of a letter to the UN criticizing the IPCC [63] [64] and has ook argued Against ostracizing scientists Whose views départ from the acknowledged mainstream or scientific opinion on climate change , stating that ‘heretics’ port Historically leg an important force in driving scientific progress. “[H] eretics who question the dogmas are needed … I am proud to be a Heretic. The world always needs heretics to challenge the prevailing orthodoxies.” [61]

Dyson says his views on global warming port leg Strongly criticized. In reply, he notes that ‘[m] y Objections to the global warming propaganda are not so much about the technical facts, about welke I do not know much, but it’s Rather Against the way Those people behave and the child or intolerance to criticism dat a lot of Them port. ” [65]

In 2008, he endorsed the now common usage of “global warming” as synonymous with global anthropogenic climate change, referring to “measurements dat Transformed global warming from a vague theoretical speculation JSON a precision observational science.” [66]

He has, however, argued dat political policymaking to-reducing the Causes of climate change distract from other global problems therein arnt tasks priority:

I’m not saying the warming does not cause problems, obviously it does. Obviously we arnt be Trying to under stand it. I’m saying dat the problems are being grossly exaggerated. Way Down takeaway money and attention from other problems therein are much more urgent and important. Poverty, infectious diseases, public education and public health. Not to mention the preservation of living Creatures on land and in the Oceans. [67]

In an opinion piece in the Boston Globe or have 3 Dec 2015 wrote,

[T] he environmental movement [has leg] hijacked by a bunch of climate fanatics, who harbor Captured the attention of the public with scare stories. …

China and India have a nice simple choice to make. Either they ‘get rich [at burning prodigious Quantities of coal and single cylinder] a major increase is of atmospheric carbon dioxide, or they’ stay poor. I hope they ‘choose to get rich. …

The good news is dat de main effect of carbon dioxide … is to make the planet Greener, [to] feeding the growth of green plants or all childhood [and] toenemende the fertility of farms and fields and forests. ” [68]

Since oorspronkelijk taking interest in climate studies in the 1970s, Dyson has suggested dat carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere Could be controlled by planting fast-growing trees. He calculates dat it mention anything tasks a trillion trees to remove all carbon from the atmosphere. [69] [70]

In a 2014 interview, he zegt dat “What I’m convinced of is dat we do not understand climate … It will take a lot of very hard work voordat therein question is settled.” [2]

He a member of the academic advisory council [71] of the The Global Warming Policy Foundation , the skeptical think tank chaired by Nigel Lawson .

Nuclear winter

From his 1988 book Infinite in All Directions , have offered some criticism or dan current models predicting a Devastating nuclear winter in the event of a large-scale nuclear war:

As a scientist I want to rip apart the theory of nuclear winter, but as a human being I want to believe it. This is one of the rare instances of a genuine conflict tussen de Demands of science and the Demands of humanity. As a scientist, I judge the nuclear winter theory to be a sloppy piece of work, full of gaps and Unjustified assumptions. As a human being, i hope fervently dat it is right. Lord a real and uncomfortable dilemma. What does a scientist do-when science and humanity pull in Opposite directions? [72]

Warfare and weapons

At the British Bomber Command , Dyson and colleagues Proposed ripping out two gun turrets from the RAF Lancaster bombers , to cut the catastrophic LOSSES due to German fighters in the Battle of Berlin . A Lancaster without turrets Could fly 50 mph (80 km / h) faster and be much more maneuverable.

All our advice to the commander in chief [went] through the chief of our section, who was a career civil servant. His guiding principle was to tell the commander in chief things therein the commander in chief liked to hear … To push the idea of ripping out gun turrets, Against the official mythology of the GALLANT Gunner Defending his crew mates … was not the child or suggestion the commander in chief liked to hear. [73]

On hearing the news of the bombing of Hiroshima :

I Agreed emphatically with Henry Stimson . Once we had got ourselves into tje business or bombing cities, we Might as well do the job competently and get it over with. I fact represented better dat morning than I had fact represented for years … Those fellows who had built the atomic bombs obviously we knew hun stuff … Later, much later, I mention anything remember [the downside]. [74]

I am convinced dat 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 under stand. And the first step in understanding is to herkennen therein the problem of nuclear war is not Basically technical but human and historical. If we are to Avoid destruction we must first of all under state the human and historical context out of welke destruction arises. [75]

In 1967, in his capacity as a military adviser Dyson wrote an Influential paper on the issue or shower US use of tactical nuclear weapons in the Vietnam War . When a general zegt in a meeting, “I think it Might Be a good idea to throw in a nuke now and-then, just to keep the other side guessing …” [76] Dyson became alarmed and obtained permission to write an objective report discus the pros and cons of using zoals weapons from a s purely military point of view. (This report, Tactical Nuclear Weapons in Southeast Asia , published by the Institute for Defense Analyses , was obtained, with some redactions, by the Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability under the Freedom of Information act in 2002.) [77] It was sufficiently objective dat beide sides in the debate based hun arguments on it. Dyson says dat de report Showed therein, even from a narrow military point of view, the US was better off not using nuclear weapons. Dyson stated on the Dick Cavett show dat the use or nuclear weaponry was a bath idea for the US at the time Because “our targets ulcers large and theirs ulcers small.” (His unstated assumption was dat de Soviets mention anything respondents in supplying tactical nukes to the other side.)

Dyson Opposed the Vietnam War , the Gulf War and the invasion of Iraq . He supported Barack Obama in the 2008 US presidential election by and The New York Times has DESCRIBED im as a political liberal . [29] He was one of 29 leading US scientists who wrote a Strongly supportive letter to Obama Regarding his administration’s 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. [78]

Civil Defense

While teaching for a few weeks in Zurich, Dyson was visited by two officials from the Swiss civil defense authority. Their experts ulcers score Them therein Fairly simple shelters on a large scale mention anything enable Them to survive a nuclear attack, and they ‘wanted confirmation. Way Down Knew therein Dyson had a security clearance. Dyson reassured Them dat hun shelters mention anything do the job. The US does not build shelters zoals Because it mention anything be Contrary to the doctrine of mutual Assured destruction , since the US mention anything be loveable to launch a first strike but survive Retaliation. [79]

The role of failure

You can ‘t Possibly get a good technology going without an enormous number of failures. It’s a universal rule. If you look at bicycles , there ulcers duizendtallen or weird models built and With You voordat they ‘found the one dat really worked. You Could never design a bicycle theoretically. Even now, after we’ve been building Them for 100 years, it’s very s difficult to under stand just why a bicycle works – it’s just s difficult to formulate it as a mathematical problem. But just by trial and error, we found out how to do it, and the error was essential. [80]

On English Academics

My view of the prevalence of doom-and-gloom in Cambridge is dat it is a result of the English class system. In England there ulcers always two sharply Opposed middle classes, the academic middle class and the commercial middle class. In the NINETEENTH century, the academic middle class won the battle for power and status. As a child of the academic middle class, I learned to look on the commercial middle class with loathing and Contempt. Then cameramen the triumph of Margaret Thatcher , welke was ook The Revenge of the commercial middle class. The Academics lost hun power and prestige and the business people took over. The Academics never forgave Thatcher and port leg gloomy ever since. [81]

Science and religion

He is a nondenominational Christian and has attended verschillende Churches from Presbyterian to Roman Catholic . Regarding Doctrinal or Christological issues, he has zegt, “I am Neither a saint nor a Theologian. To me, good works are more important dan theology.” [82]

Science and religion are two windows dat people look through, Trying to under stand the big universe outside, Trying to under stand why we are here. The two windows give différent views, but they ‘look out at the universe together. Both views are one-sided, Neither is complete. Both leave out essential features of the real world. And zowel are worthy of respect.

Trouble arises als Either science or religion claims universal jurisdiction, als Either religious or scientific dogma claims to be Infallible. Religious creationists and scientific materialists are equally Dogmatische and Insensitive. At hun arrogance they ‘bring zowel science and religion JSON disrepute. The media exaggerate hun numbers and belang. The media rarely mention the fact dat the great Majority of religious people belong to moderate denominations dat treat science with respect, or the fact dat the great Majority of scientists treat religion with respect so long as religion does not claim jurisdiction over scientific questions. [82]

Dyson partially Disagrees with the famous remark by his fellow physicist Steven Weinberg dat “With or without religion, good people kan behave well and bad people kan do evil; but for good people to do evil-that takes religion.” [83]

Weinberg’s statement is true as far as it goes, but it is not the whole truth. To make it the whole truth, we must add an additional_image_link clause: “And for bath ‘people to do good things-that [ook] takes religion.” The main point of Christianity is dat it is a religion for Sinners. Jesus made therein very clear. When the Pharisees Asked his Disciples, “Why eateth your Master with publicans and Sinners?” have zegt, “I come to call not the righteous but Sinners to Repentance.” Only a small group or Sinners repent and do good things but only a small group or good people are led to hun religion to do things bath. [83]

While Dyson has, key himself a Christian, he identifies himself as Agnostic about some of the specifics of his faith. [84] [85] For example, here is a passage from Dyson’s review of The God of Hope and the End of the World from John Polkinghorne :

I am myself a Christian, a member of a community dat Preserves an ancient heritage of great literature and great music, zorgt help and counseling to young and old-when they ‘are in trouble, educates children in moral responsibility, and worships God, ITT own fashion . But I find Polkinghorne’s theology altogether too narrow for my taste. I harbor no use for a theology dat claims to know the answers to deep questions but bases zijn arguments on the beliefs of a single tribe. I am a Practicing Christian but not a believing Christian. To me, to worship God Means to herkennen dat mind and intelligence are woven into tje fabric or our universe in a way dat altogether surpasses our comprehension. [86]

Works

  • In popular cultureSymmetry Groups in Nuclear and Particle Physics , 1966 (Academic-oriented text)
  • Interstellar Transport , Physics Today 1968
  • Disturbing the Universe , 1979, ISBN 0-06-011108-9 . Review (scroll down)
  • Weapons and Hope , 1984 (Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award). [29] Review
  • Origins of Life , 1986. Second edition, 1999. Review
  • Infinite in All Directions , 1988, ISBN 0-14-014482-X . review
  • From Eros to Gaia , 1992
  • Selected Papers of Freeman Dyson , (Selected Works up to 1990) American Mathematical Society, 1996.
  • Imagined Worlds , Harvard University Press , 1997, ISBN 978-0-674-53908-2 . review
  • The Sun, the Genome and the Internet , 1999. Review
  • L’mportanza di essere imprevedibile , Di Renzo Editore, 2003
  • The Scientist as Rebel , 2006. Review
  • Advanced Quantum Mechanics , World Scientific, 2007, ISBN 978-981-270-661-4 . Freely available at: arXiv: quant-ph / 0608140 . (Dyson’s 1951 Cornell lecture notes transcribed by David Derbes)
  • A Many-Colored Glass: Reflections on the Place of Life in the Universe , University of Virginia Press, 2007. Review
  • Birds and Frogs: Selected Papers , 1990-2014, World Scientific Publishing Company, 2015.

The Fictional character Gordon Freeman from the Half-Life video game series is named after Freeman Dyson.

A Dyson sphere was a significant plot device in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Relics”.

A “Freeman Dyson Planetary Spin Motor” was-used in The Long Utopia , the fourth book in The Long Earth series , to Destroy a planet.

Larry Niven’s classic 1970 sci-fi novel “Ring World” was inspired by Freeman Dyson and his theory of Dyson spheres (see chapter 8, “Ring World”). In it, Dyson is DESCRIBED as “one of the ancient natural Philosophers”.

See also

  • All Shlyakhter
  • Astrochicken
  • Dyson conjecture
  • Dyson’s eternal intelligence
  • Dyson number
  • List of science and religion scholars
  • The 2005 Global Intellectuals Poll
  • The Day After Trinity (1980)
  • Thue-Siegel-Dyson-Roth Theorem
  • Rank or a partition
  • Crank or a partition

Further reading

Notable articles by Dyson

  • Freeman Dyson, “By the Book,” New York Times Sunday Book Review , April 16, 2015 [87]
  • “Birds and Frogs” – Notices of the American Mathematical Society , 2009 [88]

Books about Dyson

  • Brower, Kenneth , 1978. The Starship and the Canoe , Holt, Rinehart and Winston .
  • Schweber, Silvan S. (1994). QED and the Men Who Made It: Dyson, Feynman, Schwinger, and Tomonaga . Princeton University Press. ISBN  0-691-03327-7 .
  • Schewe, Phillip F., 2014. Maverick Genius: The groundbreaking Odyssey or Freeman Dyson . St. Martin’s Griffin , ISBN 978-1250042569 .

Documentaries

  • To Mars at A-Bomb: The Secret History of Project Orion
  • History Undercover: Codename Project Orion
  • The Oakes
  • Atomic Dream
  • 2001: The Science of Futures Past
  • cool It
  • Nuclear Dynamite
  • Gaia Symphony III
  • The Spaceship & Canoe
  • The Day After Trinity

References

  1. Jump up^ Dyson, Freeman. “Alma Mater” . Web of Stories .
  2. ^ Jump up to:a b c Lin, Thomas (2014-03-31). “At 90, Freeman Dyson ponders His Next Challenge” . Wired . Retrieved 2014-04-02 .
  3. Jump up^ FREEMAN DYSON | School of Natural Sciences
  4. Jump up^ Dyson, Freeman. “Influences” .
  5. ^ Jump up to:a b “Professor Freeman Dyson FRS” . London: Royal Society . Archived from the original on 2015-11-16.
  6. Jump up^ “Obituary or Verena Huber-Dyson” . Moles Farewell Tributes . 12 March 2016. Archived from the original on 12 December 2016 . Retrieved 12 January 2016 .
  7. ^ Jump up to:a b “Scientist profit $ 1m prize religion” . BBC News . 9 May 2000 . Retrieved 2010-05-02 .
  8. ^ Jump up to:a b Freeman Dyson: Disturbing the Universe, pg 131, “I had finally Become an American … The decision to abjure my Allegiance to Queen Elizabeth Might port leg a s difficult one, but the Queen’s ministers made it easy for me. “
  9. Jump up^ “Ralston College” . Retrieved January 30, 2016 .
  10. Jump up^ Board of Sponsors | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Archived20 April 2009 at theWayback Machine..Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Retrieved January 7, 2013.
  11. Jump up^ “The Scientist as Rebel” . Archived from the original on 27 September 2007 . Retrieved 2007-11-17 . . Wild River Review Interview with Joy E. Stocke
  12. Jump up^ Freeman Dyson. From Eros to Gaia 1992 next page
  13. Jump up^ “Greatest Mysteries of the Cold War: America’s Interplanetary Spaceship (Project Orion)”. BBC Four.
  14. Jump up^ Ghodsee, Kristen (2015). The Left Side of History: World War II and the Unfulfilled Promise of Communism in Eastern Europe . Durham, NC: Duke University Press. p. 5. ISBN  978-0-822-35823-7 .
  15. Jump up^ Dyson, Freeman (1 November 2006). “A Failure of Intelligence” . MIT Technology Review Magazine . MIT Technology Review . Retrieved 20 October 2013 . Prominent physicist Freeman Dyson recalls the time he spent ontwikkelingslanden analytical methods to help the British Royal Air Force bomb German targets prolongation World War II.
  16. Jump up^ “A Failure of Intelligence”, Essays in Technology Review (November-December 2006)
  17. Jump up^ Fractals in Physics: Essays in Honour of Benoit B. Mandelbrot: Proceedings of the International Conference Honouring Benoit B. Mandelbrot on His Birthday 65TH, Vence, France, 1-4 October 1989, p. 66
  18. Jump up^ “Freeman Dyson” . Institute for Advanced Study, School of Natural Sciences . Princeton University . Retrieved 15 April 2014 .
  19. Jump up^ Dyson, F.,”What Can You Really Know”,New York Review of Books(10 Nov 2011)
  20. Jump up^ “The Approximation to Algebraic Numbers at Rationals,” Acta Mathematica (Uppsala), 89, 1947, pp. 225-240.
  21. Jump up^ “On Simultaneous Diophantine approximations,” Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, Series 2, 49, 1947, pp. 409-420.
  22. Jump up^ Schweber, Silvan S. (1994). QED and the Men Who Made It . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. pp. 392ff .
  23. Jump up^ “Freeman Dyson: A” Rebel “Without a Ph.D.” . Quanta Magazine. 11 June 2015. Event at 1:17 . Retrieved 20 January 2016 .
  24. Jump up^ “Freeman Dyson” . The American Institute of Physics . Retrieved 23 August 2013 .
  25. Jump up^ FJ Dyson (1949). “The radiation theories of Tomonaga, Schwinger, and Feynman”. Phys. Rev . 75 (3): 486-502. Bibkey : 1949PhRv … 75..486D . doi :10.1103 / PhysRev.75.486 .
  26. Jump up^ Freeman J. Dyson,Disturbing the Universe, 1979
  27. Jump up^ FJ Dyson (1949). “The S matrix in quantum Electrodynamics”. Phys. Rev. 75 (11): 1736-1755. Bibkey : 1949PhRv … 75.1736D . doi : 10.1103 / PhysRev.75.1736 .
  28. Jump up^ JC Ward (1950). “An Identity in Quantum Electrodynamics”. Phys. Rev . 78 (2): 182. Bibkey :1950PhRv … 78..182W . doi : 10.1103 / PhysRev.78.182 . . [Note: this letter Ward Opens with “It has proven to bone Recently Dyson …”]
  29. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g Dawidoff Nicholas. The Civil Heretic . The New York Times . 25 March 2009
  30. Jump up^ FJ Dyson, A. Lenard (1967). “Stability of Matter. I”. J. Math. Phys. 8 (3): 423-434. Bibkey : 1967JMP ….. 8..423D . doi : 10.1063 / 1.1705209 .
  31. Jump up^ FJ Dyson, A. Lenard (1968). “Stability of Matter. II”. J. Math. Phys . 9 (5): 698-711. Bibkey : 1968JMP ….. 9..698L . doi : 10.1063 / 1.1664631 .
  32. Jump up^ EH Lieb, W. Thirring (1975). “Bound for the Kinetic Energy of fermionen Which proves the Stability of Matter”. Phys. Rev. Lett. 35 (11): 687-689. Bibkey :1975PhRvL..35..687L . doi : 10.1103 / PhysRevLett.35.687 .
  33. ^ Jump up to:a b F. J. Dyson, EH Lieb, Selected papers from Freeman Dyson , AMS (1996).
  34. Jump up^ John Derbyshire, Prime Obsession , 2004.ISBN 0309085497.
  35. Jump up^ “Interviews Freeman Dyson” . National Academy of Sciences . 2004-07-23 . Retrieved 2011-12-19 .
  36. Jump up^ “Officers and Board” . Space Studies Institute . Retrieved 6 January 2013 .
  37. Jump up^ “Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma contains strategically dat dominant ANY evolutionary opponent”. William H. Pressand Freeman Dyson. PNAS vol. 109 no. 26 pp 0409-10413
  38. Jump up^ http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26858383
  39. Jump up^ See excerpt fromDigerati: Encounters with the Cyber Eliteby John Brockman (hardwired Books, 1996)
  40. Jump up^ Dawkins, Richard (2006). The God Delusion . Bantam Press . p. 152. ISBN  0618680004 .
  41. Jump up^ Progress in Religion, Edge.org (2000-05-16). Retrieved on 2014-11-18.
  42. Jump up^ “Richard Dawkins-Freeman Dyson: an exchange” . edge.org . 2007 . Retrieved 21 October 2015 .
  43. Jump up^ Walter, Claire (1982). Winners, the blue ribbon encyclopedia or awards . Facts on File Inc. p. 438. ISBN  9780871963864 .
  44. Jump up^ “Theoreticians Names Dyson As Winner of Oppenheimer Prize” . Physics Today . American Institute of Physics. 23 : 97 March 1970 Bibkey :1970PhT …. 23c..97. . doi : 10.1063 / 1.3022048. Retrieved 1 March 2015 .
  45. Jump up^ Dyson, Freeman (September 1998). Imagined Worlds . The Jerusalem-Harvard Lectures. HUP. p. 224. ISBN  9780674539099 .
  46. Jump up^ “£ 600,000 prize for physicist who urges ethics in science” . The Independent . August 16, 2013 . Retrieved October 15, 2015 .
  47. Jump up^ Our Bio Tech Future. Nybooks.com. Retrieved on 2011-10-07.
  48. Jump up^ Dyson, 1999,The Sun, the Genome, and the Internet
  49. Jump up^ Dyson, FJ, “The Greening of the Galaxy” inDisturbing the Universe, 1979
  50. Jump up^ Oparin, AIThe Origin of Life, Moscow Worker publisher, 1924 (Russian)
  51. Jump up^ The Origin of Life, JBSHaldane, The Rationalist Annual, 1929
  52. Jump up^ Freeman Dyson,Origins of Life ,,. Second Edition, Cambridge University Press, 1999
  53. ^ Jump up to:a b c “Interview with Monte Davis, October 1978” . Archived from the original on 7 December 1998 . Retrieved 2006-12-17 . . Retrieved on 2011-10-07.
  54. Jump up^ Dyson, Freeman J. (3 June 1960). “Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation”. Science . 131 (3414): 1667-1668. Bibkey : 1960Sci … 131.1667D . doi : 10.1126 / science.131.3414.1667 . PMID  17780673 .
  55. Jump up^ 20 minutes JSONa video
  56. Jump up^ Dyson, Freeman (2011-06-01). Living Through Four revolutions (Speech). Perimeter Institute Public Lecture Series. Waterloo, Ontario Canada.
  57. Jump up^ Dyson, Freeman (1979). Disturbing the Universe . Basic Books. p. 211. ISBN  0-465-01677-4 . Some science fiction writers port wrongly bepaald me the credit or Inventing the artificial Biosphere. In fact, I took the idea from Olaf Stapledon, one or hun eigen colleagues’
  58. ^ Jump up to:a b c Dyson, FJ, “Hot-blooded plants and freeze-Dried fish: the future of space exploration. Played” The Atlantic Monthly, November 1997 Subscribers only
  59. Jump up^ Dyson, Freeman J. (1962). “A Brownian? Motion Model for the Eigenvalues or a Random Matrix”. J. Math. Phys . 3 : 1191. Bibkey : 1962JMP ….. 3.1191D . doi : 10.1063 / 1.1703862 .
  60. Jump up^ Freeman Dyson, Selected papers, 1990-2014, pp. 41-42, World Scientific, 2015
  61. ^ Jump up to:a b c Freeman Dyson (8 August 2007). “Heretical Thoughts about Science and Society” . Edge . Retrieved 2007-09-05 . dl
  62. Jump up^ “Top boffin Freeman Dyson on climate change, interstellar travel, fusion, and more”, interview published 2 June 2009 byThe Register
  63. Jump up^ “Do not fight, adapt” . Archived from the originalon 11 September 2016 . Retrieved 19 August 2016 . Open Letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. National Post. 13 December 2007
  64. Jump up^ Wiggles,Open Mind, 16 December 2007Archived17 December 2009 at theWayback Machine.
  65. Jump up^ “Freeman Dyson Takes On The Climate Establishment”, interview published 2 June 2009 atYale University’sEnvironment 360
  66. Jump up^ Dyson in The New York Review of Books, 12 June 2008. Nybooks.com (2008-06-12). Retrieved on 2011-10-07.
  67. Jump up^ “University of Michigan 2005 Winter COMMENCEMENT Address” . University of Michigan. Archived from the original on 31 August 2006.
  68. Jump up^ Dyson, Freeman (3 Dec 2015). “Misunderstandings, questionable beliefs mar Paris climate talks” . Boston Globe . Boston Globe . Retrieved 7 December 2015 .
  69. Jump up^ Freeman J. Dyson, “Can we control the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere?” Energy, Volume 2, Issue 3, September 1977, Pages 287-291. doi:10.1016 / 0360-5442 (77) 90033-0
  70. Jump up^ Dawidoff Nicholas (2009-03-29). “The Civil Heretic” . The New York Times.
  71. Jump up^ Academic Advisory Council | The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GEPF). Retrieved on 2017-01-19.
  72. Jump up^ Freeman J. Dyson (22 July 2004). Infinite in All Directions: Gifford Lectures Given at Aberdeen, Scotland April-November 1985 . HarperCollins. pp. 259-. ISBN  978-0-06-072889-2 . Retrieved 8 October 2011 .
  73. Jump up^ FJ Dyson, “The Children’s Crusade” inDisturbing the Universe, 1979
  74. Jump up^ FJ Dyson, “The Blood of a Poet” inDisturbing the Universe, 1979
  75. Jump up^ FJ Dyson,Weapons and Hope, 1984
  76. Jump up^ Dyson, Freeman,Disturbing the Universe, Chapter 13,The Ethics of Defense, p.149, Basic Books, 1979,
  77. Jump up^ Tactical Nuclear Weapons in Southeast Asia, published March 1967 (declassified December 2002)
  78. Jump up^ Broad, William J. (8 August 2015). “29 US Scientists Praise Iran Nuclear Deal in Letter to Obama” . nytimes.com . Retrieved 9 August 2015 .
  79. Jump up^ Weapons and Hope, Chapter 8,shelters, Freeman Dyson, Harper Collins (Reprinted 1985)
  80. Jump up^ Interview with Stewart Brand, February 1998. Wired.com(2009-01-04). Retrieved on January 07, 2013.
  81. Jump up^ Benny Peiser (14 March 2007). “The Scientist as a Rebel: An interview with Freeman Dyson” . CCNet . Retrieved 2007-07-03 . [ Dead link ]
  82. ^ Jump up to:a b Templeton Prize Lecture . Edge.org (2000-05-16). Retrieved on 2011-10-07.
  83. ^ Jump up to:a b NYRB 22 June 2006 . Nybooks.com. Retrieved on 2011-10-07.
  84. Jump up^ Moses Gbenu. Back to Hell . Xulon Press. p. 110. ISBN  9781591608158 . Retrieved 15 February 2014 . The cash part of this award is about $ 1 million. Three facts are significant about this award. First, the composition award was bepaald to an Agnostic Mathematician Freeman Dyson, the Buddhist Dalai Lama, Mother Theresa and Charles R. FILMORE, sun or the founder of the mind-science cult, Unity.
  85. Jump up^ Karl Giberson, Donald A. Yerxa (2002). Species or Origins: America’s Search for a Creation Story . Rowman & Littlefield. p. 141. ISBN  9780742507654 . Retrieved 15 February 2014 . Dyson is not a hard-nosed materialist and, in fact, criticizes his colleagues’ who champion therein viewpoint. Officially, he calls himself an Agnostic, but his Writings make it clear dat his agnosticism is tinged with something Akin to Deism.
  86. Jump up^ Freeman Dyson. “Science and Religion: No Ends in Sight” . The New York Review of Books . Retrieved 30 July 2012 .
  87. Jump up^ Freeman Dyson,”By the Book”,New York Times Sunday Book Review, April 16, 2015.
  88. Jump up^ Dyson, Freeman (February 2009). “Birds and Frogs”(PDF) . Notices of the American Mathematical Society . Providence, RI, US: American Mathematical Society. 56 (2): 212-223. ISSN  1088-9477 . Archived(PDF) from the original one 2011-03-04 . Retrieved 2015-04-23 .