Almost everything about the universe is astounding. Freeman Dyson More Quotes by Freeman Dyson More Quotes From Freeman Dyson For a physicist mathematics is not just a tool by means of which phenomena can be calculated, it is the main source of concepts and principles by means of which new theories can be created. Freeman Dyson math justice mean The fact that the climate is getting warmer doesn't scare me at all. There's no reason why one should be scared. Freeman Dyson scare climate facts Lucky individuals in each generation find technology appropriate to their needs. Freeman Dyson technology lucky needs The pain of childbirth is not remembered. It's the child that's remembered. Freeman Dyson childbirth pain children The technologies which have had the most profound effects on human life are usually simple. A good example of a simple technology with profound historical consequences is hay. Nobody knows who invented hay, the idea of cutting grass in the autumn and storing it in large enough quantities to keep horses and cows alive through the winter. All we know is that the technology of hay was unknown to the Roman Empire but was known to every village of medieval Europe. Like many other crucially important technologies, hay emerged anonymously during the so-called Dark Ages. Freeman Dyson horse dark winter A model is such a fascinating toy that you fall in love with your creation. Freeman Dyson toys falling-in-love love-you From my childhood it has been my conviction that men would reach the planets in my lifetime . . . this conviction . . . rests on two beliefs, one scientific and one political: (1) there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our present-day science. And we shall only find out what they are if we go out and look for them. (2) it is in the long run essential to the growth of any new and high civilization that small groups of people can escape from their neighbors and from their governments, to go and live as they please in the wilderness. Freeman Dyson running men civilization If we want to go to space with humans, that's for fun not for science. Human adventures in space are just sporting events. Freeman Dyson space fun adventure The biggest breakthrough in the next 50 years will be the discovery of extraterrestrial life. We have been searching for it for 50 years and found nothing. That proves life is rarer than we hoped, but does not prove that the universe is lifeless. We are only now developing the tools to make our searches efficient and far-reaching, as optical and radio detection and data processing move forward. Freeman Dyson data years moving [On Richard P. Feynman's live demonstration of the rigidity of the O-rings when cold that doomed the space shuttle Challenger, killing seven astronauts:] The public saw with their own eyes how science is done, how a great scientist thinks with his hands, how nature gives a clear answer when a scientist asks her a clear question. Freeman Dyson eye hands thinking A model is done when nothing else can be taken out. Freeman Dyson simplicity done taken The great advances in science usually result from new tools rather than from new doctrines. Freeman Dyson doctrine tools science Boiled down to one sentence, my message is the unboundedness of life and the unboundedness of human destiny. Freeman Dyson destiny inspirational life Plasma seems to have the kinds of properties one would like for life. It's somewhat like liquid water--unpredictable and thus able to behave in an enormously complex fashion. It could probably carry as much information as DNA does. It has at least the potential for organizing itself in interesting ways. Freeman Dyson fashion dna science I am acutely aware of the fact that the marriage between mathematics and physics, which was so enormously fruitful in past centuries, has recently ended in divorce. Freeman Dyson divorce marriage math One factor that has remained constant through all the twists and turns of the history of physical science is the decisive importance of the mathematical imagination. Freeman Dyson imagination education science Many of the technologies that are now racing ahead most rapidly, replacing human workers in factories and offices with machines, making stockholders richer and workers poorer, are indeed tending to accentuate the existing inequalities in the distribution of wealth. Freeman Dyson racing technology office I am saying that all predictions concerning climate are highly uncertain. Freeman Dyson predictions climate uncertain The public knows that human beings are fallible. Only people blinded by ideology fall into the trap of believing in their own infallibility. Freeman Dyson believe people fall Walking the streets of Tokyo with Hawking in his wheelchair ... I felt as if I were taking a walk through Galilee with Jesus Christ [as] crowds of Japanese silently streamed after us, stretching out their hands to touch Hawking's wheelchair. ... The crowds had streamed after Einstein [on Einstein's visit to Japan in 1922] as they streamed after Hawking seventy years later. ... They showed exquisite choice in their heroes. ... Somehow they understood that Einstein and Hawking were not just great scientists, but great human beings. Freeman Dyson hero science jesus
