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Freeman Dyson Has Died

nytimes.com

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Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died

#141

Post by speedgeek »

djsumdog wrote: post #69
m0zg wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Excess carbon in the air is good for plants, and global warming might forestall another ice age. How is it not "rooted in science" that excess carbon is good for plants? We're already seeing significant global greening, and yields are up. Excess CO2 also reduces the amount of water the plants need.

He's gone, so this isn't really the place for this discussion at all. However, I'm glad this is mentioned and how it shows that there are a lot of intelligent people who have concerns with the current science debate. Consensus isn't science, it's politics, and challenging ones ideas is how we both reinforce the truth as well as dispel myths.

There is a prize winning physicist in my area who was arrested for starting a major brush fire. He plugged multiple extension cords together to power an electric fence and the overheating of the cords started the fire. Intelligence does not apply to every possible topic. Trusting the consensus of people trained in an area is always better than discounting that consensus because someone with little to no expertise on the subject challenges their ideas.

Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died

#142

Post by hprotagonist »

josephpmay wrote: post #62
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…

That quote is mindblowing. I don't think I've ever heard an argument for free will on a sub-atomic level. It never crossed my mind that that was a position someone could conceivably hold. But it's weirdly comforting- it almost feels religious- and I'm now thinking about how that would affect emergence.

This idea is more or less the crux of Leibniz' Monadology.

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/leibniz/#MonWorPhe

Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died

#143

Post by hprotagonist »

v77 wrote: post #122
Causality1 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that a fundamental misunderstanding of the definition of "observer" in quantum physics? To "observe" is to cause a quantum system to interact in such a way that collapses probabilities. Whether there is a living observer is totally irrelevant.

I would say this is considered an open question.

it is “the measurement problem”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measurement_problem

Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died

#144

Post by m0zg »

speedgeek wrote: post #141
djsumdog wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's gone, so this isn't really the place for this discussion at all. However, I'm glad this is mentioned and how it shows that there are a lot of intelligent people who have concerns with the current science debate. Consensus isn't science, it's politics, and challenging ones ideas is how we both reinforce the truth as well as dispel myths.

There is a prize winning physicist in my area who was arrested for starting a major brush fire. He plugged multiple extension cords together to power an electric fence and the overheating of the cords started the fire. Intelligence does not apply to every possible topic. Trusting the consensus of people trained in an area is always better than discounting that consensus because someone with little to no expertise on…

> Trusting the consensus of people trained in an area is always better

That's what they said when Galileo Galilei was on trial for not trusting the "consensus" about geocentric view of the world.

To use a more recent example, that's what they said of Dr. Barry Marshall who discovered that it was Heliobacter Pylori, and not "stress" that's causing ulcers in the stomach. Dude was very nearly laughed out of his field, to the point where he had to take the unconventional step of infecting himself with h. pylori to prove the point, and then curing himself of it with antibiotics.

In a politicized field especially, it can very easily cost one their scientific career if they "disagree with consensus" if one is less prominent than Dyson, whereas "agreeing with consensus" is strongly beneficial.

Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died

#145

Post by Nasrudith »

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…

A bad fall can kill anyone. Non-elders usually are more durable and have better reaction time though.

I suspect reaction and bracing may matter more than human scale durability given sucker punches are especially dangerous because the body doesn't react or attempt to shield any vitals. Clearly healthy young men aren't durable enough to never die that way.

In the case of elders the decline in reflexes may matter more - although they certainly do take injuries worse.

Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died

#146

Post by henriquemaia »

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…

Lucretius, some 2000 years ago, based on a completely different kind of atomism, believed something very similar. Free will was due to random events on the atomic level, what he called clinamen (the swerve).

Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died

#148

Post by tazedsoul »

NikolaeVarius wrote: post #26
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

I truly appreciate thinkers who are able to think about God in their own original terms. His particular description of the notion of God is quite similar to my own, so this is quite nice to read.

Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died

#149

Post by scotty79 »

v77 wrote: post #122
Causality1 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that a fundamental misunderstanding of the definition of "observer" in quantum physics? To "observe" is to cause a quantum system to interact in such a way that collapses probabilities. Whether there is a living observer is totally irrelevant.

I would say this is considered an open question.

Only for non-physicists and physicists wondering about things outside of physics.

Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died

#150

Post by bori5 »

bori5 wrote: post #113
gbronner wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 press…

In a similar vein there’s a story and YouTube video of Russians plugging an out of control burning oil well with a small nuke. Edit. It was a gas well here’s the link https://youtu.be/S57Xq03njsc

RIP Freeman Dyson. Apologies for drifting from main thread, fell for the oldest trick in the HN book.
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