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bechols's review
2.0
First half is more autobiographical, the second half more essays. The history in the autobiographies is interesting, the essays are varied but not particularly compelling.
jocelyn_sp's review
3.0
I re-read this after a long interval (possibly 30 years or more) because I picked it off the shelf for a Facebook list. I forgot that it is a collection of essays forming a piece-wise memoir, with the gaps and repetitions that implies. The first couple are the best, with the memories of Dyson's formation as a mathematical physicist, and his experiences of Operations Research group in London in World War II. Later essays are weaker, because patchier, and displaying some of the arrogance of a top physicist in the 1950s. This book had a big influence on me, planting the idea of mathematical physics as an aspiration, showing how finely-tuned the universe is for life, as well as other ideas. Dyson was a nuclear enthusiast with dreams of space colonisation, which was fun then for a reader of Asimov and Heinlein, but looks naive and hubristic now.
chrisxho's review
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
A thoughtful and reflective book that collects together essays, letters and memories of Freeman Dyson.
corydoesmath's review
4.0
It's taken me four years to finish this book. For a long time, it was prematurely my favorite book of all time. I hold a special place in my heart for this book, which I inherited from a crate of books from my old math professor. I thought the title was pretentious and had never heard of Freeman Dyson. I did not know what to expect. Then I started reading.
1. Freeman is a one-of-a-kind polymath. His hands have been in some of the most influential physics, math, politics, and research and development in history. And he's also incredibly well-read, well-traveled, well-acquainted, and creative. His descriptions of people are unparalleled. One of my lifelong goals was to see Freeman Dyson speak in Princeton, but unfortunately he passed away last year.
2. The writing is dense. I think this is why it took me so long to read. Each chapter is an essay. Some essays are really technical. Some of the politics went over my head. This was published over forty years ago. One ding against Freeman: I've heard that he did not really believe in the urgency of global warming. But I don't remember that being touched on much in this book. I skimmed most of Part III - I did not find his writing about the future and space as interesting.
3. The reason why this is one of my favorite books is because of these chapters:
- Chapter 4: The Blood of a Poet. I remember exactly where I was when I read this. I was in the kitchen of a house where I was the counselor for a sleep-away camp. I was glued to the page and about to cry. It was one of the most intense emotions I had felt while reading and as I skim through the chapter now, I cannot appreciate with what intensity I felt - but I believe it.
- Chapter 6: A Ride to Albuquerque. This one features Richard Feynman. I often compare Dyson to Feynman, but this chapter I think exhibits why I prefer Dyson a lot more.
- Chapter 8: Prelude in E-Flat Minor. This is my all-time recommended chapter. How the Prelude comes in is so lovely. The politics of the atomic bomb were so intense and controversial. I cannot imagine being involved.
- Chapter 14: The Murder of Dover Sharp. The opening story is kind of crazy and the discussion of the test ban treaty sounded like the most perfect radio bit you'd hear from NPR.
4. Reading these essays in pieces, over four years, has meant that it's been a constant source of inspiration. I think it's incredibly smart writing and it's proof that people who study math and science do have an invaluable and irrefutable place in politics, foreign affairs, policy, and philosophy.
I will likely reread the above chapters several times in my lifetime.
1. Freeman is a one-of-a-kind polymath. His hands have been in some of the most influential physics, math, politics, and research and development in history. And he's also incredibly well-read, well-traveled, well-acquainted, and creative. His descriptions of people are unparalleled. One of my lifelong goals was to see Freeman Dyson speak in Princeton, but unfortunately he passed away last year.
2. The writing is dense. I think this is why it took me so long to read. Each chapter is an essay. Some essays are really technical. Some of the politics went over my head. This was published over forty years ago. One ding against Freeman: I've heard that he did not really believe in the urgency of global warming. But I don't remember that being touched on much in this book. I skimmed most of Part III - I did not find his writing about the future and space as interesting.
3. The reason why this is one of my favorite books is because of these chapters:
- Chapter 4: The Blood of a Poet. I remember exactly where I was when I read this. I was in the kitchen of a house where I was the counselor for a sleep-away camp. I was glued to the page and about to cry. It was one of the most intense emotions I had felt while reading and as I skim through the chapter now, I cannot appreciate with what intensity I felt - but I believe it.
- Chapter 6: A Ride to Albuquerque. This one features Richard Feynman. I often compare Dyson to Feynman, but this chapter I think exhibits why I prefer Dyson a lot more.
- Chapter 8: Prelude in E-Flat Minor. This is my all-time recommended chapter. How the Prelude comes in is so lovely. The politics of the atomic bomb were so intense and controversial. I cannot imagine being involved.
- Chapter 14: The Murder of Dover Sharp. The opening story is kind of crazy and the discussion of the test ban treaty sounded like the most perfect radio bit you'd hear from NPR.
4. Reading these essays in pieces, over four years, has meant that it's been a constant source of inspiration. I think it's incredibly smart writing and it's proof that people who study math and science do have an invaluable and irrefutable place in politics, foreign affairs, policy, and philosophy.
I will likely reread the above chapters several times in my lifetime.
jeeleongkoh's review
4.0
On hearing that I am working on a book of essays, WL lent me Freeman Dyson's Disturbing the Universe. He was a professor of physics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. "Born in England," the biographical note continues, " he came over to Cornell University in 1947 as a Commonwealth Fellow and settled permanently in the U.S. in 1951." A summary of his career, the next paragraph also indicates the topics of his essays: "Professor Dyson is not only a theoretical physicist; his career has spanned a large variety of practical concerns. His is a unique career inspired by direct involvement with the most pressing concerns of human life, minimizing loss of life in war, to disarmament, to thought experiments on the expansion of our frontiers into the galaxies."
From his essays, it is clear that Dyson is that rare thing, a man deeply passionate about both science and literature. His essays make reference to Goethe's Faust, Auden and Isherwood's The Ascent of F6, H. G. Wells's The Island of Doctor Moreau, John Milton's great defense of press freedom Areopagitica. The title of the book comes from T. S. Eliot's poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." The first essay "The Magic City," my favorite of the book, is a meditation on the frightening pertinence of Edith Nesbit's children's story of the same name to the abuse of science in our contemporary world. Dyson himself is a very good writer, lucid and graceful.
The force of the writing comes not only from style, however, but also from the moral discrimination that Dyson wields in confronting his life and the world's problems. He blamed himself for not taking any action though he knew as a civilian statistician at the Research Division that the Allies' strategic bombing of German cities in the last years of WWII was not only unconscionable but also ineffective and lethal only to the lives of RAF pilots. He made the interesting argument that it was the Americans' success at firebombing Tokyo that paved the way to the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima. Having built up a Strategic Bombing Command at great cost, the Allies were almost bound to use it.
In another fine essay, "The Blood of a Poet," Dyson paid a heartfelt tribute to his Winchester schoolfriend Frank Thompson whose intelligence and liveliness marked him out as a leader of men. He was a poet too. He joined the Communist Party and enlisted in the war from the start in 1939. While playing the dangerous role of the Allies' liaison with Bulgarian partisans, he was captured and executed by the Fascists, but not before giving his audience their common sign of liberty, a salute with a clenched fist, and thus inspiring the men captured with him to do the same and march to their deaths with heads held high.
The other portraits in this book are of his fellow physicists at Cornell and Princeton. Dick Feynman and his intuitions. His opposite, Julian Schwinger and his mathematical equations. The mercurial arrogance of Robert Oppenheimer. The humanity of Hans Bethe. Dyson contrasts the egotism of the physicists with the cooperative spirit of the engineers. He also astutely observes how all the Los Alamos alumni spoke nostalgically of the A-bomb project as a time of thrilling camaraderie. He is clear about the constant temptation facing scientists of treating all questions, even those with vast moral consequences, as merely technical questions. He humanizes the public perception of Edward Teller, who spoke against Oppenheimer at the latter's security hearings. The scientists, all intellectual giants, are shown to be human and fallible. The portraits, however, are not malicious. They are suffused with affection and admiration. Dyson is not therefore blind to faults.
The last section of the book, which takes up the subjects of space exploration and extra-terrestrials, is less interesting to me than the two earlier sections, "England" and "America." Someone of a more speculative cast of mind will enjoy these essays. When Dyson shades into mysticism in the last essay, finding a Mind behind the mind at work in making quantum observations, and the mind beyond brain cells and synapses, he loses me.
From his essays, it is clear that Dyson is that rare thing, a man deeply passionate about both science and literature. His essays make reference to Goethe's Faust, Auden and Isherwood's The Ascent of F6, H. G. Wells's The Island of Doctor Moreau, John Milton's great defense of press freedom Areopagitica. The title of the book comes from T. S. Eliot's poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." The first essay "The Magic City," my favorite of the book, is a meditation on the frightening pertinence of Edith Nesbit's children's story of the same name to the abuse of science in our contemporary world. Dyson himself is a very good writer, lucid and graceful.
The force of the writing comes not only from style, however, but also from the moral discrimination that Dyson wields in confronting his life and the world's problems. He blamed himself for not taking any action though he knew as a civilian statistician at the Research Division that the Allies' strategic bombing of German cities in the last years of WWII was not only unconscionable but also ineffective and lethal only to the lives of RAF pilots. He made the interesting argument that it was the Americans' success at firebombing Tokyo that paved the way to the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima. Having built up a Strategic Bombing Command at great cost, the Allies were almost bound to use it.
In another fine essay, "The Blood of a Poet," Dyson paid a heartfelt tribute to his Winchester schoolfriend Frank Thompson whose intelligence and liveliness marked him out as a leader of men. He was a poet too. He joined the Communist Party and enlisted in the war from the start in 1939. While playing the dangerous role of the Allies' liaison with Bulgarian partisans, he was captured and executed by the Fascists, but not before giving his audience their common sign of liberty, a salute with a clenched fist, and thus inspiring the men captured with him to do the same and march to their deaths with heads held high.
The other portraits in this book are of his fellow physicists at Cornell and Princeton. Dick Feynman and his intuitions. His opposite, Julian Schwinger and his mathematical equations. The mercurial arrogance of Robert Oppenheimer. The humanity of Hans Bethe. Dyson contrasts the egotism of the physicists with the cooperative spirit of the engineers. He also astutely observes how all the Los Alamos alumni spoke nostalgically of the A-bomb project as a time of thrilling camaraderie. He is clear about the constant temptation facing scientists of treating all questions, even those with vast moral consequences, as merely technical questions. He humanizes the public perception of Edward Teller, who spoke against Oppenheimer at the latter's security hearings. The scientists, all intellectual giants, are shown to be human and fallible. The portraits, however, are not malicious. They are suffused with affection and admiration. Dyson is not therefore blind to faults.
The last section of the book, which takes up the subjects of space exploration and extra-terrestrials, is less interesting to me than the two earlier sections, "England" and "America." Someone of a more speculative cast of mind will enjoy these essays. When Dyson shades into mysticism in the last essay, finding a Mind behind the mind at work in making quantum observations, and the mind beyond brain cells and synapses, he loses me.
wilte's review
4.0
Well written collection in three parts: growing up in England & second World War, working in America with Behe, Feynman & Oppenheimer, and a final part about what the future holds.
See Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/wilte/status/1263363276357992448?s=21
See Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/wilte/status/1263363276357992448?s=21
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