The brilliant Freeman Dyson and his difficult ideas
On Monday, 23.03.2009, the legendary Freeman Dyson delivered a public lecture at the Lebedev Physics Institute in Moscow. The official reports of news agencies are not as interesting as the personal impressions that oleg_shishkin outlined on his page in the Livejournal.
Funny impression of the performance of the luminary in FIANA. I'm retelling how I understood, but close to the text.
Dyson Freeman, of course, is against all this hype about global warming, because it's not true or not quite true. And the main issue in the life of mankind is not. The main issues still remain the problems of hunger, poverty, infectious diseases in developing countries, and first of all in African countries.
On the rock paintings in the Sahara, in Tassili, made 6 thousand years ago, we see birds, animals, flora. The climate there was humid – the same as it is now in the Serengeti. And if the climate starts to change in the direction of warming, the humidity there will rise again and, consequently, there will be savannas in place of deserts, and in the savannas it is already possible to feed the aborigines of these places, now suffering from a thousand-year drought.
And the hype is raised because of the usual selfishness of Western countries, which primarily think about their well-being, and not the well-being of the poorest countries.
About genes and genetically modified products. "Well, did my friend von Neumann, who invented the Eniac, assume that computers would become ordinary toys for children who would play with it day and night, spoil their eyesight, annoy parents, forget about homework? Was his fantasy and the fantasy of Goldstein and Berks spent on this? And the result?
So why hinder experiments with genes today? Why, I ask? Well, 10, well, 20 years will pass, and these experiments will also be included in children's games and children will not sit aimlessly at the computer, but will design new animals, flowers and even bacteria! But their access to viruses should be restricted. This is really very dangerous – I admit it.
And genetically modified organisms? That's also raised a fuss! Well, was anyone against the fact that one Christmas, when they came to a zoological store in New York, they saw beautiful fish that glowed in the dark, as did the bright heads from the Taikong corporation, modifying the genetic code of the striped danio fish using the DNA of a jellyfish? And genetically modified products will allow us to feed the poor, hungry population of the planet. This is a blessing.
Now about atomic weapons. Also a deception! The big myth being fanned by America is that supposedly two of its atomic bombs allowed the war to end, because, you see, the Japanese were scared of these atomic bombs. And, therefore, nuclear bombs are guarantees of peace today.
All this is American bullshit! The Japanese army, at the moment when these bombs were dropped, had already occupied half of Asia. And she was ready to fight to the last soldier, which cannot be said about the American army. The outcome of the war with Japan was determined not by two bombs, albeit powerful ones, but by the entry of the USSR into the war. The Japanese did not expect the appearance of this joker, and therefore capitulated.
Even if this Hitler had managed to create his own bomb there, well, let's say. Well, if he had dropped them, say, on London and Moscow, you and I would not have been, of course, it's a pity... But the Red Army was there, and it would have finished off the fascist reptile in its lair anyway.
And of course, all this is also American bullshit and hype about Iran or someone else getting hold of nuclear weapons ... well, what if it gets hold of? Today, such means of control, both obvious and secret, that he will not be able to hide his bombs, and even more so to use them. So the path is the same for America and Russia, and for the rest – a complete rejection of nuclear weapons and the myth of its omnipotence..."
It was nice that it was modest, but sometimes Freeman still flaunted his knowledge of the Russian language. :) When one of Kapitsa 's neighbors got up and started: "I want to ask you, dear Dyson Freeman, about this...", Dyson Freeman exclaimed in pure Russian: "Well"!
At the end of the lecture, communication began, and there were already questions about the unification of Russia and America into one state, and about contacts with aliens.
The latter topic is not alien to the scientist in a serious plane, that is, the technical possibilities of such contact – he even talked on this topic with Academician Kardashev, director of the FIAN Astrocosmic Center and chairman of the Scientific Council for Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Who knows, he will understand.
reference:
Freeman Dyson is a professor at Princeton University (USA), an outstanding physicist, known for his work in the field of quantum physics, nuclear energy, solid state physics.
Born in Britain in 1923, after the war he received a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Cambridge and moved to the United States, where he got a job at Princeton University.
He worked, in particular, on the project of creating nuclear engines for spacecraft, participated in the development of nuclear reactors.
He is the author of works on quantum electrodynamics, works on the theory of magnetism (Dyson spin wave formalism), the theory of the energy spectrum of nuclei (Dyson distribution). The scientist was actively interested in the problem of extraterrestrial civilizations, the origin of life.
Dyson created a project to settle quadrillions of people in the Solar System. He suggested that highly developed civilizations in the Universe create "spheres" around the stars (called "Dyson spheres") that completely capture their energy, and suggested looking for brothers in mind by infrared radiation of these spheres.
Dyson and his books have been awarded many international prizes, including the Templeton Prize for achievements in research or discoveries in spiritual life.
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24.03.2009