Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Freeman Dyson Has Died

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 267 posts

Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died

#21

Post by gbronner »

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…

I've met him and his other daughter. They are/were wonderful people.

There were a lot of "solutions" using nuclear weapons looking for a problem. There was a proposal to blow a new canal through nicaragua, to blast harbors into Alaska, etc. My roommate's father showed me his paper that anticipated fracking: drill a deep well in oil shale, through a small nuclear weapon in the bottom, blow it up and watch as the pressure and heat extract the oil and have it flow through the fractured rock back to your oil well.

He almost got to test it.

Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died

#24

Post by gwern »

Noted physicist slain by oldest foe, gravity:

"Mia Dyson says her father, at the age of 96 still regularly went to his office at Princeton University. On Wednesday, on such a visit, she says he suffered a fall and died of his injuries Friday morning."

TBIs and elder falling are a terrifying source of morbidity and mortality. So many old people start their terminal decline when they fall, for no particularly good reason. (Even when it doesn't immediately kill them, it can contribute to a downward spiral of ill health, less activity, and iatrogenics.) Who knows how much longer Dyson could have lived if his foot hadn't slipped?

Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died

#25

Post by mcrider »

Freestyler_3 wrote: post #23

I think last week someone mentioned the dyson sphere with a link to wiki. It said he regretted they named it after him.

Huh, I'd be curious to see that source. I know he somewhat recanted the idea of a Dyson sphere, as it is completely impractical even with unimagined technology (re: tensile strength of the materials, and preventing such a megastructure from falling into the sun whenever a rock hits it). But he later proposed the idea of a Dyson swarm, an extremely large array of solar-sucking satellites orbiting the sun as an idea that's theoretically possible even with today's technology.

Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died

#26

Post by NikolaeVarius »

s_dev wrote: post #16

He was interesting character partially because he believed in God. This is actually quite rare at the very upper echelons of the scientific community.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_Dyson#Science_and_reli...

Seems more complicated than that

> I am a practicing Christian but not a believing Christian. To me, to worship God means to recognize that mind and intelligence are woven into the fabric of our universe in a way that altogether surpasses our comprehension

Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died

#27

Post by dmix »

gwern wrote: post #24

Noted physicist slain by oldest foe, gravity: "Mia Dyson says her father, at the age of 96 still regularly went to his office at Princeton University. On Wednesday, on such a visit, she says he suffered a fall and died of his injuries Friday morning." TBIs and elder falling are a terrifying source of morbidity and mortality. So many old people start their terminal decline when they fall, for no particularly good reas…

What an interesting perspective to consider and a statement on human fragility, especially in the context of such a great man.

Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died

#28

Post by melling »

Started writing "later” in life:

“Life begins at 55, the age at which I published my first book,” he wrote in “From Eros to Gaia,”

Never got his PhD. Taught physics at Cornell.

Thoughts on climate change:

"Relishing the role of iconoclast, he confounded the scientific establishment by dismissing the consensus about the perils of man-made climate change as “tribal group-thinking.” He doubted the veracity of the climate models, and he exasperated experts with sanguine predictions they found rooted less in science than in wishfulness: Excess carbon in the air is good for plants, and global warming might forestall another ice age."

Lots worth reading in the NYT obituary.

Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died

#29

Post by tartoran »

gwern wrote: post #24

Noted physicist slain by oldest foe, gravity: "Mia Dyson says her father, at the age of 96 still regularly went to his office at Princeton University. On Wednesday, on such a visit, she says he suffered a fall and died of his injuries Friday morning." TBIs and elder falling are a terrifying source of morbidity and mortality. So many old people start their terminal decline when they fall, for no particularly good reas…

Or to look at it from a different angle, their fall is caused by their old age decline which in turn triggers their terminal decline. I've seen it throughout my family, once confined to bed at old age one's decline accelerates quickly. It's perhaps that the lack of movement that has some spiraling effect on their health. More and more people should not stop doing sports when they get older, they should do sports less vigorously as they age but movement regime should stay.

Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died

#30

Post by jschwartzi »

rtrunck wrote: post #2

“It is remarkable that mind enters into our awareness of nature on two separate levels. At the highest level, the level of human consciousness, our minds are somehow directly aware of the complicated flow of electrical and chemical patterns in our brains. At the lowest level, the level of single atoms and electrons, the mind of an observer is again involved in the description of events. Between lies the level of mole…

This makes me think of how the story in The Expanse is proceeding.
Post reply on HN