You could say science also is an art. Freeman Dyson More Quotes by Freeman Dyson More Quotes From Freeman Dyson It's us that's really amazing. 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 miracle different done The world is just - it's wonderful when you look at all the detail. It's just amazing. Nothing is boring if you look at it carefully. Freeman Dyson boring wonderful world Almost everything about the universe is astounding. I think the most amazing thing is how gifted we are - we are only monkeys who came down from the trees just recently. We have these amazing gifts of music and mathematics and painting and Olympic running. Freeman Dyson running tree thinking I'm prejudiced about education altogether. I think it's terribly overrated. It wastes a tremendous amount of time - especially for women, it's particularly badly timed. If they're 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 conflict age thinking I think the biggest misconception about mathematics is that everybody has to learn it. That seems to be a complete mistake. All the time worrying about pushing the children and getting them to be mathematically literate and all that stuff. It's terribly hard on the kids. It's also hard on the teachers. And I think it's totally useless. To me, mathematics is like playing the violin. Some people can do it - others can't. If you don't have it, then there's no point in pretending. Freeman Dyson mistake teacher children There are two different ways of looking at the universe; and it's the same universe with two different windows. The science window gives you a view of the world, and the religion window gives you a totally different view. You can't look at both of them at the same time, but they're both true. Freeman Dyson different giving world For me, science is just a bunch of tools - it's like playing the violin. I just enjoy calculating, and it's an instrument I know how to play. It's almost an athletic performance, in a way. I was just watching the Olympics, and that's how I feel when proving a theorem. Freeman Dyson athletic prove enjoy The thing that makes me most optimistic is China and India - both of them doing well. It's amazing how much progress there's been in China, and also India. Those are the places that really matter - they're half of the world's population. They're the places where things are enormously better now than they were 50 years ago. And I don't see anything that's going to stop that. Freeman Dyson progress optimistic It's clear the media, of course, always gives you the bad news. And people who rely on the media, like Mr. Trump, think that everything is a disaster. The media always tries to make everything into a disaster, but it's mostly rubbish. It's a point of fact that we're doing extremely well. Freeman Dyson giving people thinking That's what I learned from World War II. Things are always more complicated than most people believe. Freeman Dyson war believe people The point of fact is, just in simple ways, you can see how much better things have gotten. I mean, when I was a child, I lived in England, and England was just amazingly polluted. We didn't use that word. We just said it was it all covered with soot. Freeman Dyson simple mean children That's the beautiful thing about science - that it's all about things we don't understand, not just the things we do understand. Freeman Dyson beautiful-things beautiful You have this world of mathematics, which is very real and which contains all kinds of wonderful stuff. And then we also have the world of nature, which is real, too. And that, by some miracle, 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. Freeman Dyson miracle luck real We won't really understand the brain until we can make models of it which are analog rather than digital, which nobody seems to be trying very much. Freeman Dyson digital brain trying The brain, being analog, is able to grasp images so much better. The brain is just designed for comparing images and some patterns - patterns in space and patterns in time - which we do amazingly well. Computers can do it, too, but not in anything like the same kind of flexibility. Freeman Dyson patterns space brain I think that what the machines can do, of course, is wonderful, but it's not the same as what the brain can do. Freeman Dyson machines brain thinking People who travel in China tell me that the mood there is still very upbeat, because their media is different from our media. Chinese media emphasize how well things are going and suppress the bad news and publish the good news. Freeman Dyson chinese media people It's amazing how much progress there's been in China, and also India. Those are the places that really matter - they're half of the world's population. They're the places where things are enormously better now than they were 50 years ago. And I don't see anything that's going to stop that. Freeman Dyson progress india years The thing that makes me most optimistic is China and India - both of them doing well. Freeman Dyson china optimistic india I think we're doing pretty well. It's clear the media, of course, always gives you the bad news. Freeman Dyson media giving thinking
