Freeman Dyson Has Died • Hacker News Board

Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died

#11

Post by nerpderp82 » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 5:41 PM UTC

starpilot wrote: post #6

He was the sanest mind on climate change: https://e360.yale.edu/features/freeman_dyson_takes_on_the_cl...

> Dyson contends that since carbon dioxide is good for plants, a warmer planet could be a very good thing. And if CO2 does get to be a problem, Dyson believes we can just do some genetic engineering to create a new species of super-tree that can suck up the excess.

Forever the optimist!

Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died

#12

Post by ssivark » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 5:42 PM UTC

A free and original thinker, who wrote well. An intellectual powerhouse with immense humility. He will be sorely missed.

Here are some of his most interesting tidbits (For a man like Dyson, I'm sure there's more)

1. Birds and frogs: https://www.ams.org/notices/200902/rtx090200212p.pdf (On two kinds of intellectual personalities)

2. The Scientist as a Rebel (essay collection): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51431.The_Scientist_as_R...

3. He has been thoughtfully articulate in his perspective on religion. While I can't find an appropriate link right away, definitely worth checking out.

Quotes/Excerpts: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Freeman_Dyson

Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died

#13

Post by dmead » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 5:43 PM UTC

astrophysician wrote: post #5

About 4 years ago, I was a grad student in astrophysics at Princeton. Dyson worked at the Institute for Advanced Study which, while not officially part of the university was essentially an extension of the various departments (shared colloquiums, any researcher there was a valid thesis adviser, etc.). The grad students have a tradition (or used to) called “Thunch” (Thursday Lunch) where they invite someone to come ha…

so what you're saying is that we have nuclear trebuchets?

Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died

#14

Post by lzybkr » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 5:47 PM UTC

I guess it's time to reread Starship and the Canoe - a great book about Freeman's nuclear weapon powered spaceship and his son George's interest in building boats. I thoroughly enjoyed it 25+ years ago.

Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died

#15

Post by sunstone » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 5:48 PM UTC

One for the ages.

Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died

#16

Post by s_dev » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 5:51 PM UTC

He was interesting character partially because he believed in God.

This is actually quite rare at the very upper echelons of the scientific community.

Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died

#17

Post by hirundo » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 5:51 PM UTC

"When I listen to the public debates about climate change, I am impressed by the enormous gaps in our knowledge, the sparseness of our observations and the superficiality of our theories"

"We have no reason to think that climate change is harmful if you look at the world as a whole. Most places, in fact, are better off being warmer than being colder. And historically, the really bad times for the environment and for people have been the cold periods rather than the warm periods."

"...the computer models are very good at solving equations of fluid dynamics but very bad at describing the real world. The real world is full of things like clouds and vegetation and soil and dust which the models describe very poorly."

https://www.azquotes.com/author/4275-Freeman_Dyson/tag/clima...

Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died

#18

Post by ISL » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 5:53 PM UTC

Here's a vote for an HN black bar. Dyson's work was incredible.

Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died

#19

Post by s_dev » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 5:53 PM UTC

jaredhansen wrote: post #3

I think it would be appropriate to break out the black bar for this one. For those not familiar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_Dyson

No black bar for Dyson. The black bars overwhelmingly go to the titans of (digital) tech rather than titans of science.

Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died

#20

Post by kkwteh » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 5:53 PM UTC

I particularly enjoyed being immersed in the ethos of engineering, which is very different from the ethos of science. 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.

Dyson said this while describing his time working on the Orion project. It had a profound effect on me and it has always stuck with me.