He should be buried in a spherical grave! then he would always be in his dyson sphere. RIP!!
Freeman Dyson Has Died
171–180 of 267 posts
Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
I wonder how much of this depends on how big a change there is in movement? Would a lifelong couch potato for whom their post fall movement is only a few percent less than what it was before the fall be less affected than someone who had been very active before their fall and had to cut their movement by 95%?
From what I've seen in the elderly, yes. It's just just the inactivity, but also the positioning. I suspect your lungs don't drain the same way, more of your body is subject to contact pressure for longer periods, and how blood flow works against gravity changes.
Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died
#173The obit refers to him as "Dr. Dyson". Did he ever get a doctorate? edit: I'll leave this up for posterity, but the answer is no. The article explains the discrepancy.
"Freeman Dyson, renowned physicist and educator, today (May 17) received an honorary doctor of science degree at Clarkson University"
Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died
#174Started 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 climat…
> Never got his PhD
"Freeman Dyson, renowned physicist and educator, today (May 17) received an honorary doctor of science degree at Clarkson University"
Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died
#175Started 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 climat…
> Never got his PhD "Freeman Dyson, renowned physicist and educator, today (May 17) received an honorary doctor of science degree at Clarkson University"
An honorary doctorate doesn't mean anything. If it did, no one would bother trying to earn the real thing.
Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those points may have been true when he said them. "The models are bad" becomes less true over time. Also, since the ice age was so bad for humans, it's forgivable that a non-expert would think that going further in the same direction could be helpful.
I think it’s unfair to call Dyson a non-expert. Climate science was not his speciality, and he was humble about his relation to it and quick to point out that there are people more familiar with the current state of the field than him, but he was involved in important early climate studies. From Wikipedia: > Around 1979 Dyson worked with the Institute for Energy Analysis on climate studies. This group, under Alvin We…
Unfortunately, he acted like a non-expert when he hand-waved away quantitative arguments. Being wary of long-term predictions does not in any way justify using claims that are not even predictions, in any scientific sense, to argue for the opposite outcome.
Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
the ridiculously hot summers in Australasia resulting in bushfires, famine and drought... seas taking over the cities are all demonstrable effects of climate change. Did he live in UK? Yea the winter was milder I guess.
There are plant species that are dependent upon fire for reproduction. Such species begin to die if all fire is suppressed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrophyte https://www.gardenguides.com/97493-eucalyptus-trees-australi... https://www.bushheritage.org.au/species/grass-trees https://www.nationalforests.org/our-forests/your-national-fo... https://www.quora.com/What-seeds-need-fire-to-germinate-like... https://thek…
I didn't realize that about the original predictions for the Kuwaiti oil well fires, that's interesting.
They are still cleaning up the oil from the sands on the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia 30 years later though.
Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
Another plausible view is that it never sneaks in. Nondeterminism would only lead to free will if the mind somehow controlled the nondeterministic outcomes. We know the brain can't do that, so it's clearly a metaphysical question if you want to go further (the mind would have to be an agent distinct from the brain.) The answer to a metaphysical question is not always "no," but you will never be able to prove it.
I don't get this argument. If your mind deterministically makes a given decision in a given circumstance then that's what your mind decided to do. Another mind would make a different decision. That seems like your mind determined the outcome and that sounds like free will?
I think the GPs point is that the decision is less about free will and more about programming that has taken place through the lifetime of the host.
For example if someone asks me if I want tea or coffee and I know I don’t like coffee then I’m always going to choose tea irrespective of my free will.
This is just a crude example though, our psychology is infinitely more subtle. We are a subject to our experiences and those experiences start out against our control (due to us being kids). We are also a subject to our biology. If your body produces too much of one chemical or not enough of another then our moods could be drastically affected. We have cravings that are often chemical. Diet also plays a part too.
So much of what we think of as “free will” is actually circumstance that happened before the decision and biological states happening elsewhere in your body.
Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died
#179About 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 press…
> I've met him and his other daughter.
This seems somewhat impolite. If you've met her one would presume you would remember her name. I would expect she wouldn't like being referred to as simply an 'other daughter'.
Also, Dyson had five daughters including Esther. Not two.
Re: Freeman Dyson Has Died
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Never got his PhD "Freeman Dyson, renowned physicist and educator, today (May 17) received an honorary doctor of science degree at Clarkson University"
An honorary doctorate doesn't mean anything. If it did, no one would bother trying to earn the real thing.
One could be officially called Dr. after getting honorary degree