Lunch with Freeman Dyson

#1

Post by unquote » Thu, Mar 05, 2020, 6:47 AM UTC

Lunch with Freeman Dyson
nytimes.com

Re: Lunch with Freeman Dyson

#2

Post by neonate » Thu, Mar 05, 2020, 6:48 AM UTC

https://archive.md/99c88

Re: Lunch with Freeman Dyson

#3

Post by dunkelheit » Thu, Mar 05, 2020, 10:07 PM UTC

I enjoy reading about Dyson and reading his writings. Among the greats he seems the most human. Von Neumann was always this martian with an IQ of 500, Einstein the quintessential absent-minded professor, Feynman the trickster genius, Landau the force if nature in life and research. But stories about Dyson always radiate human warmth. Very inspiring.

Re: Lunch with Freeman Dyson

#4

Post by contingencies » Thu, Mar 05, 2020, 11:38 PM UTC

dunkelheit wrote: post #3

I enjoy reading about Dyson and reading his writings. Among the greats he seems the most human. Von Neumann was always this martian with an IQ of 500, Einstein the quintessential absent-minded professor, Feynman the trickster genius, Landau the force if nature in life and research. But stories about Dyson always radiate human warmth. Very inspiring.

Sounds like his mother had a lot to do with that.

Re: Lunch with Freeman Dyson

#5

Post by stevespang » Thu, Mar 05, 2020, 11:54 PM UTC

neonate wrote: post #2

https://archive.md/99c88

Appreciate you posting that archive version.

NY Times article will not translate to other languages via Google itools for more than 2 seconds, it is blocked.

Re: Lunch with Freeman Dyson

#6

Post by scottlocklin » Fri, Mar 06, 2020, 1:03 AM UTC

dunkelheit wrote: post #3

I enjoy reading about Dyson and reading his writings. Among the greats he seems the most human. Von Neumann was always this martian with an IQ of 500, Einstein the quintessential absent-minded professor, Feynman the trickster genius, Landau the force if nature in life and research. But stories about Dyson always radiate human warmth. Very inspiring.

He's the only Christian of the five you mention. Dunno if that was done on purpose.

He does seem especially nice though.

Re: Lunch with Freeman Dyson

#7

Post by mhh__ » Fri, Mar 06, 2020, 3:43 AM UTC

dunkelheit wrote: post #3

I enjoy reading about Dyson and reading his writings. Among the greats he seems the most human. Von Neumann was always this martian with an IQ of 500, Einstein the quintessential absent-minded professor, Feynman the trickster genius, Landau the force if nature in life and research. But stories about Dyson always radiate human warmth. Very inspiring.

I actually think Schwinger is (one of) the most human, by which I mean flawed.

He was famous - from Gell-Mann to Dyson to [insert famous field theorist] - for being deliberately incomprehensible when explaining himself, very stubborn when it came to new ideas (to an almost ridiculous extent if Murray Gell-Mann was being serious) and almost literally obsessed with mathematical beauty over matching experiment.

Feynman was also flawed, but more as a man than a scientist.

Edit: A lesser-known but still very important particle physicist, Tom Kibble was known for being extremely humble and straightforward: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glHr9yrV2AI

Re: Lunch with Freeman Dyson

#8

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Mar 06, 2020, 5:43 AM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Lunch with Freeman Dyson

#9

Post by OldGuyInTheClub » Fri, Mar 06, 2020, 5:56 AM UTC

The author keeps referring to him as Dr. Dyson when he was proud of never having taken a Ph.D and explicitly hating the Ph.D system.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzC1IRYN_Ps&list=PLVV0r6CmEs...

Re: Lunch with Freeman Dyson

#10

Post by randcraw » Fri, Mar 06, 2020, 6:20 AM UTC

OldGuyInTheClub wrote: post #9

The author keeps referring to him as Dr. Dyson when he was proud of never having taken a Ph.D and explicitly hating the Ph.D system. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzC1IRYN_Ps&list=PLVV0r6CmEs...

I emailed the author on that very point, and she said the decision to use "Dr Dyson" was an informed choice made by an editor and was out of her hands.