As far as I can see, our concentration of different abilities in one species - there's nothing I can see that in this Darwinian evolution that could've done that. So it seems to be a miracle of some sort. Freeman Dyson More Quotes by Freeman Dyson More Quotes From Freeman Dyson The purpose of thinking about the future is not to predict it but to raise people's hopes. Freeman Dyson purpose people thinking We have no reason to think that climate change is harmful if you look at the world as a whole. Most places, in fact, are better off being warmer than being colder. And historically, the really bad times for the environment and for people have been the cold periods rather than the warm periods. Freeman Dyson facts people thinking The PhD system is the real root of the evil of academic snobbery. People who have PhDs consider themselves a priesthood, and inventors generally don't have PhDs. Freeman Dyson real roots people The Besicovitch style is architectural. He builds out of simply elements a delicate and complicated architectural structure, usually with a hierarchical plan, and then, when the building is finished, the completed structure leads by simple arguments to an unexpected conclusion. Every Besicovitch proof is a work of art, as carefully constructed as a Bach fugue. Freeman Dyson simple beauty art CO2 is so beneficial...it would be crazy to try to reduce it Freeman Dyson crazy would-be trying It is better to be wrong than to be vague. Freeman Dyson vague mindset The more I examine the universe and study the details of its architecture, the more evidence I find that the universe in some sense must have known that we were coming. Freeman Dyson details architecture science A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few original ideas as possible. There are no prima donnas in engineering. Freeman Dyson engineering science ideas There is a great satisfaction in building good tools for other people to use. Freeman Dyson tools use people The technologies which have had the most profound effects on human life are usually simple. Freeman Dyson medieval-europe technology simple If you're in the business world, that's what's expected: You should go bust and then start again on something else. So it's a much more relaxed kind of a culture. It's also competitive, but not in such a vicious way. I think the academic world is actually much more destructive of young people. Freeman Dyson culture people thinking Ethical progress is the only cure for the damage done by scientific progress. Freeman Dyson damage progress done If it should turn out that the whole of physical reality can be described by a finite set of equations, I would be disappointed, I would feel that the Creator had been uncharacteristically lacking in imagination. Freeman Dyson imagination would-be reality [John Wheeler] rejuvenated general relativity; he made it an experimental subject and took it away from the mathematicians Freeman Dyson mathematician subjects made Humanity looks to me like a magnificent beginning but not the final word. Freeman Dyson finals humanity looks If women are doing a Ph.D., they have a conflict between raising a family or finishing the degree, which is just at the worst time - between the ages of 25 to 30 or whatever it is. It ruins the five years of their lives. Freeman Dyson finishing age years Almost everything about the universe is astounding. Freeman Dyson universe For me, science is just a bunch of tools - it's like playing the violin. Freeman Dyson violin tools bunch The whole point of science is that most of it is uncertain. That's why science is exciting--because we don't know. Science is all about things we don't understand. The public, of course, imagines science is just a set of facts. But it's not. Science is a process of exploring, which is always partial. We explore, and we find out things that we understand. We find out things we thought we understood were wrong. That's how it makes progress. Freeman Dyson progress imagine facts We should try to introduce our children to science today as a rebellion against poverty and ugliness and militarism and economic injustice. Freeman Dyson trying today children
