Interviews: Ask Freeman Dyson What You Will 181
Famous for his work in math, astronomy, nuclear engineering, and theoretical physics, Freeman Dyson has left his mark on almost every scientific discipline. He's won countless awards, and written numerous books on a wide range of topics both scientific and philosophical. One of his biggest contributions to science was the unification of the three versions of quantum electrodynamics invented by Feynman, Schwinger and Tomonaga. 10 years after moving to the U.S. he started working on the Orion Project, which sought to create a spacecraft with a nuclear propulsion system. STNG exposed the idea of a Dyson sphere to the masses, and his hypothetical plan for making a comet habitable with the help of genetically-engineered plants is a personal favorite. Mr. Dyson has graciously agreed give us a bit of his time in order to answer your questions. As usual, ask as many as you'd like, but please, one question per post.
Fewer Polymaths in the Modern World? (Score:5, Interesting)
Why the United States? (Score:4, Interesting)
Global Warming (Score:2, Interesting)
In the past you've been cited as a noted skeptic of man-made global warming. Has any of the recent events made you change your mind? Events such as the Arctic becoming completely free of ice, or Britain having snow-free winters?
Okay those events haven't actually happened yet, but eminent climate scientists have ran computer models and they say these things will happen very soon. Are you alarmed enough to change your stance on global warming?
Eduication (Score:4, Interesting)
Eco mass histeria (Score:4, Interesting)
Are you saddened by the fact that fears in the general populace prohibit the use of nuclear technologies for space exploration?
Targets for the Space Industry (Score:5, Interesting)
Given that we finally seem to have a vital and growing private space industry, what do you think the likeliest successful target for long term space industrialization/exploitation/habitation is? The Moon, near earth asteroids, Mars?
What do you believe but cannot prove? (Score:3, Interesting)
Nuclear Freeze Movement (Score:5, Interesting)
Professor Dyson
I had the pleasure of listening to you speak at Caltech in the 1980s about the Nuclear Freeze Movement. You were a supporter even though you indicated that since the number of nuclear weapons was decreasing (at that time), keeping the current number of nuclear weapons was not desirable.
Thirty years have passed. Do you think this movement accomplished any of their goals?
Thank you.
What's your hunch on conciousness? (Score:5, Interesting)
Consciousness is unlike anything I've encountered in any of the sciences. How should we direct our efforts in explaining this glaringly evident fact in the world?
The Sun, the Genome and the Internet (Score:5, Interesting)
Transhumanism, Moore's Law, etc... (Score:5, Interesting)
What is a realistic "first step" into space? (Score:4, Interesting)
What do you view as the most realistic way for humanity to get its space legs (in a permanent fashion)? Drag an asteroid into orbit and use it to build cyclers? One-way Mars settlement missions? Something else?
I've heard a lot of cool ideas about things we could do once we're in space (Dyson spheres, etc) but we lack anything more than a toehold on the lowest rung of a long, long ladder and it seems like a chicken-and-egg problem.
Where will we be in 50 years? (Score:2, Interesting)
You've seen technology shift dramatically in your lifetime. Humanity had barely launched its first rockets when you were born, and you got to see humans walk on another planet (or at least, moon). What do you think I will be able to see before I die?
Re:Global Warming (Score:2, Interesting)
In the past you've been cited as a noted skeptic of man-made global warming.
Freeman Dyson is NOT an AGW skeptic! He has been quite clear about this. He accepts the evidence that it is happening. But he also believes that many of the policies and proposals for dealing with it are misguided and poorly prioritized. I tend to agree with him. We are pouring tens of billions into subsides for solar and wind technologies, but poor countries, that are generating an increasingly large fraction of CO2, cannot afford those subsidies. We would be far better off if we spend that money on literacy programs for girls in third world countries. In Sierra Leone, illiterate women have an average of five kids. Literate women have an average of three. The same correlation has been found in other countries. Those unborn children will be generating zero CO2 emissions, and in the long run population control will swamp any other effect on AWG. But, unlike with the subsidies, improving literacy has many other benefits as well: A large gap between male and female literacy is highly correlated with terrorism and political instability. A small gap is correlated with stronger economic growth and healthier children. This is just one example of how our tunnel vision about AGW has caused priority inversion.
Fringe ideas (Score:5, Interesting)
The fringes of science are filled with all sorts of disreputable, crackpot ideas. Most are worthless, but every now and then one turns out to be true (e.g. Wegener's continental drift). Are there any such "cocktail party theories" that you intrigue you, and that you believe might deserve further investigation?
Re:Targets for the Space Industry (Score:5, Interesting)
On a related note do you think that trying/learning to build a space station with artificial gravity and radiation shielding should be a priority rather than trying to put humans on Moon or Mars?
global warming: genetic engineering and coal death (Score:4, Interesting)
Mr. Dyson. Is AI more important than space travel? (Score:4, Interesting)
While space travel is important for human survival in the long term, the more I think about it, the more it seems that developing a human style, scalable, artificial intelligence has for more potential to provide humans with rapid access to a much larger set of useful answers in the general domain of practical, solvable problems.
The investment should be, relatively speaking, trivial, and we already have 7 billion or so working models, so I think it's fairly certain that this can be done.
Given a choice, would you advocate more resources be allocated to space travel, or AI?
Re:What's your hunch on conciousness? (Score:2, Interesting)
How about "Do you like xkcd?"
'A glorious accident' (Score:3, Interesting)
In 1993 you participated in the dutch VPRO television series 'Een schitterend ongeluk' ('A glorious accident'), with a very long, interesting and openhearted interview and an encounter with 6 top scientists of different disciplines. I recently watched the series again, and it totally lived up to the fond memories I had from 20 years ago. I can't remember any other non-fiction television making such an impression on me!
What recollections do you have from the interview and the encounter? Did it have some impact on your (scientific) views?
Thank you
Parenting Esther Dyson (Score:4, Interesting)