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Summary: Excellent distillation of Dyson's ideas
Review: Physicist and philosopher Freeman Dyson based the five chapters in this book on a 1995 lecture series. The resulting essays are wonderfully written, profound, and convincing. As the title suggests, Dyson uses scenarios from science fiction and futurism as starting points and milestones in his discussions. He manages to work both _Jurassic Park_ and Stapledon's _Last and First Men_ into Chapter 3, which is about genetic engineering. Chapter 4, Evolution, is a jarring trip through history past and present. Aw, hell. Just buy it. You won't be sorry.
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Summary: As Always, Dyson Challenges Humanity to Think More Broadly
Review: Freeman Dyson is one of the most respected physicists and futurists in the United States. In this captivating book, based on a set of lectures he gave at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1995, Dyson explores possible futures in science, technology, evolution, and ethics. He argues that science and technology are offering the human race a myriad of exciting prospects, but that there are enormous challenges in harnessing them effectively. For example, he characterizes much of our most celebrated scientific and technological accomplishments as "ideologically driven" and therefore of lesser long-term value than intended. While they might boost national pride, they are too expensive and benefit too small a community to have significant effect on humanity. Ideologically driven technologies, furthermore, tend to leapfrog the type of rigorous experimentation so valuable in creating spin-off technologies of benefit to all. Dyson is at his best when analyzing the ethical dimension of these technologies and what they portend for the future. Dyson offers this assessment: "Many of the technologies that are racing ahead most rapidly, replacing human workers in factories and machines, making stock-holders richer and workers poorer, are indeed tending to accentuate the existing inequalities in the distribution of wealth" (pp. 181-82). An object lesson is the proliferation of computer technology and the Internet. According to Dyson, since the poor have access neither to computers nor the Internet, and since jobs are increasingly being advertised on-line, they now no longer have access to many jobs. In this context, Dyson cries out for a commitment to social justice that would help mediate the widening gap between rich and poor. He also suggests that in the United States the commitment to "free market capitalism" is an ideology that has driven much technological development, playing as it does to the elites who can afford the technologies, to the detriment of humanity as a whole. It is a pointed, well-meaning warning for the future. Dyson also seeks to look into the distant future, offering a fascinating portrait of what he calls the "seven ages of man." Here Dyson looks ahead at several levels, from ten years to infinity. First, looking out ten years he sees a time-scale with which are all familiar and one that dominates everyone's planning. In that decade we will see the rise of biotechnology and other breakthroughs just becoming a part of civilization's consciousness. Second, he looks out one hundred years and suggests that we can reasonably extrapolate from what is presently taking place. Here he sees humanity moving outward into space and grappling with numerous environmental issues on Earth. Third, one thousand years in the future humanity will have populate the Solar System and probably our corner of the Milky Way. But neither politics nor technology is predictable. Fourth, at ten thousand years Homo Sapiens will have evolved into a variety of subspecies or perhaps ceased to exist at all. Fifth, at one hundred thousand years we can only speculate on an entirely different civilization than anything imagined today. Sixth, at one million years in the future Dyson asks questions about life and its quality but is totally nonunderstandable to us. Seventh, Dyson explores the nature of infinity and the death of universe. What does the future hold? No one knows for sure but Freeman Dyson offers a compelling set of possibilities in "Imagined Worlds." He quotes from Samuel L. Gompers, founder of the American Federation of Labor, that this is what should happen in the future:
"We want more school houses and less jails,
More books and less guns,
More Learning and less greed,
More justice and less revenge,
We want more opportunities to cultivate our better nature" (p. 177). Dyson believes this is fully achievable. If we can imagine it, we can accomplish it. This is a most uplifting and challenging read. Enjoy!
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Summary: Mind-Expanding
Review: I always enjoy Freeman Dyson's books and essays, mostly because he is always willing to tackle the big questions in science and society. Not for him the pedestrian, the cynical, or the immediate--always the long view, with a certain passionate feeling for the possibilities of progress. His writing is refreshing and mind-expanding. I especially enjoyed his discussion of early aviation, and the account he gives of the engineer, Nevil Shute Norway, one of my favorite authors of all time. The Darwinian perspective of the evolution of an artifact, the airplane, is right on, and one is tempted to see the phenomenon in other developing technologies as well. The book is short, and is easy to read, especially considering the lofty ideas it contains.
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