Letters to the Editor
MacK..
Published Letters: 481 Editor's Choice: 49
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I'll regret replying -- I know I will
[Read the article: Our rosy future, according to Freeman Dyson]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Grubert – as it happen’s I do know that Physics was known as natural philosophy, it’s why I received a BA and not a BSc.
There really is nothing odd about Freeman Dyson not having a PhD – I noticed that one ranter against him cited his PhD as part of why he was part of the deluded [patriarchy.] The PhD was a largely German credential pre-WW II – I had very eminent lecturers of Dyson’s generation, albeit elderly, who did not have PhD’s, indeed there Nobels in that category. Quite a few scientists in the 20s-50s never got around to doing a PhD thesis. Dyson has done serious work throughout his career, and few good physicists think he is a bullshitter. His comments about
As for anyone who says he is not a serious scientist – well hmmmmmmm. FRS is not handed out to bullshit artists. Why don’t people check out his biography before pontificating in ways that make every [informed] reader scratch their head … Dyson has done serious work throughout his career, and few good physicists think he is a bullshitter.
Grubert: “But physics isn't about math, the math must be verified by reality. Dyson is not a typical first-rate physicist, I'm not even sure he would be considered first-rate.” What came first, the chicken and the egg … a lot of say quantum mechanics couldn’t be verified for a very long time – indeed some of it seem to contradict reality when first hypothesised – and observationally even say a ptolomaeic view of the cosmos was more consistent with observed reality than the Copernicus model, until opotics and measurement technology caught up. By the way, few physicists regard Dyson as anything other than fist rate.
As for David Sugerman’s post “when people see "Norman Borlaug" (the Green Revolution) they think "Glenn Seaborg" (plutonium) and they have a point” and that point would be??? The mind boggles, please, explain the connection? Ignorance – you know there was once an interesting survey where people were asked to identify the most dangerous item to hold in the palm of their hand:
(a) a new nuclear fuel rod
(b) a used nucler fuel rod
(c) 50g of metallic plutonium
Guess which was the right answer – guess which one people picked?
Finally, I do not (and I am at best an agnostic) find his criticism of Richard Dawkins unfair – Dawkins is being as much of a jerk as the Christians who stick it up your nose.
By the way, have fun with preachers – when you see one heading towards you getting ready to say “have I told you about Jesus and how he loves you” the trick is to hold out hand first as say “have I about Satan and how he wants you – here look at the this contract, you won’t regret signing it AS LONG AS YOU LIVE" – then whip out a fountain pen and start jabbing your arm saying– "gotta get some bloooood”
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David Sugarman -- you need to stop distorting everything through your own prejudices
[Read the article: Our rosy future, according to Freeman Dyson]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You accuse Dyson of not working for nuclear disarmament and then list a seris of things he did which you imply further nuclear armament. Almost everything you list shows you to be, well, either a gross distorter of an ignoramous.
The Orion Project -- a space-ship powered by nuclear detonations -- so? it was not a weapon.
Then you make juvenile sneer at his design of the TRIGA reactor -- do you know what the TRIGA is used for -- if you do you are dishonest and if you don't you are an ass! For the benefit of readers -- do anyone of you know someone whose life was saved by radio-isotope treatment for cancer -- chances are the short-life isotopes in question were made in a TRIGA, or indirectly by using a TRIGA. So in fact, the TRIGA has saved thousands of lives -- what can you boast Mr. Sugarman, a few thousand sophomoric sneers?
Finally, Philips term-paper was an action taken on specifically to show the world what a problem nuclear proliferation was ... Dyson, by allowing an undergraduate student to demonstrate that even he had the knowledge (as many good Physics students would) to design a nuclear device that probably would explode was demonstrating the degree of threat that nuclear weapons posed -- and the need for world action on disarmament. Not surprisingly you also distorted this act.