Freeman Dyson
Freeman Dyson
Freeman John Dyson FRSis an English-born American theoretical physicist and mathematician, known for his work in quantum electrodynamics, solid-state physics, astronomy and nuclear engineering. He is professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study, a Visitor of Ralston College, and a member of the Board of Sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists...
crazy interesting interesting-life
The key to having an interesting life is to always say "yes" to anything crazy.
mother years soul
Sometimes we talked about the nature of the human soul and about the Cosmic Unity of souls that I had believed in so firmly when I was 15 years old. My mother did not like the phrase Cosmic Unity. It was too pretentious. She preferred to call it a world soul.
bridges design essentials
The bottom line for mathematicians is that the architecture has to be right. In all the mathematics that I did, the essential point was to find the right architecture. It's like building a bridge. Once the main lines of the structure are right, then the details miraculously fit. The problem is the overall design.
pain children childbirth
The pain of childbirth is not remembered. It's the child that's remembered.
technology needs generations
Lucky individuals in each generation find technology appropriate to their needs.
luck
Everything in my life was luck.
scare facts reason-why
The fact that the climate is getting warmer doesn't scare me at all. There's no reason why one should be scared.
opportunity people pessimism
Younger people have so many opportunities. I don't see any pessimism among them.
running moon men
It is in the long run essential to the growth of any new and high civilization that small groups of men can escape from their neighbors and from their government, to go and live as they please in the wilderness. A truly isolated, small, and creative society will never again be possible on this planet.
beautiful beautiful-things
That's, of course, the beautiful thing about science - that it's all about things we don't understand, not just the things we do understand.
spiritual grandchildren moon
There are three reasons, . . . apart from scientific considerations, mankind needs to travel in space. The first . . . is garbage disposal; we need to transfer industrial processes into space so that the earth may remain a green and pleasant place for our grandchildren to live in. The second . . . to escape material impoverishment: the resources of this planet are finite, and we shall not forego forever the abundance of solar energy and minerals and living space that are spread out all around us. The third . . . our spiritual need for an open frontier.
moving moon thinking
If you want to have a program for moving out into the universe, you have to think in centuries not in decades.
law interesting way
The laws of nature are constructed in such a way as to make the universe as interesting as possible.
luck language speak
The language that nature speaks is the same language that we invented for mathematics. That's just an amazing piece of luck, which we don't understand.