Freeman Dyson

Freeman Dyson in 2005

A man of extraordinary genius, the late great Freeman Dyson is one of my favorite people. I have listened to recording of his talks, presentations and interviews for hours on end. Fortunately, thanks to the internet, practically everyone has the opportunity to learn from his wisdom and enjoy his delightful sense of humor. I realize of course that he’s not everyone’s cup of tea, especially those who are wedded to conventional idiotic ideas (global warming, for example) and long divorced from free inquiry.

Here’s one that I watched this morning. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to watch this conversation with Dyson at the University of Oregon (which I assume was recorded in 2016) and share with us in the comments section what you found to be the most interesting, or insightful, or surprising, or amusing. To avoid spoilers, I will reserve my answer(s) until Monday.Here you go:

(I’m back from my recent visit to India. While there, I had the extraordinary good fortune to visit three Chola temples in Tamil Nadu. I will write about that in a bit.)

 

Author: Atanu Dey

Economist.

3 thoughts on “Freeman Dyson”

  1. so wait.. you absolutely dont believe in global warming? i mean wtf man ..there literally is enough data now..and you talk as if its nothing at all lol. .its like modi fans arguing that demonization for a masterstroke, no matter what data you throw at them..

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      1. The way you have dismissed CC in your post, it’s harder to understand where to begin man!

        I am no expert but I have listened to tons of podcasts and read 1 book – not much – but I am convinced that yes if the amount of carbon in the atmosphere increases then yes it will hold back more heat and warm the planet.

        And we are going 2-degree warming anyway it seems, because most govts have not taken this seriously, because yes the reforms are going to be something free-market champions like yourself are going NOT to like and as with everything else it has very much become a culture war issue ..but a 3-4 and higher degree increase will have severe impacts in terms of weather conditions, crop failure, rains, heatwaves, etc.

        I have a feeling you are quick to dismiss everything coming from the left by painting it with the same “aww liddle widdle snowflake crying for boo-boo” brush. .but there’s some serious science about global warming and it deserves our attention.

        What brought me back to this comment is today’s google doodle – you can go see the melting ice cover and here’s this article on how 1 billion creatures were cooked to death by a heatwave last year…

        https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/12/extreme-heat-baking-sea-animals-alive/620904/

        on another note – I pretty much lean towards anti-natalism and maybe this is it .. we can no longer discuss anything seriously given the way our communications are set, in this social media format where we tease each other more than talk – I mean your reply is a pretty good example of that…

        Also, I see you are a sam harris fan – have you listened to his podcast episodes on CC? Maybe give it a whirrlll??!

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