![]() How do you count them without identifying them? That’s the kind of question the Commerce Department asked us to look at. You have to find out who is living where, whether they are citizens or not. They can’t afford to do things the old way, when you had investigators on foot, going from house to house, which is what you need to get accurate numbers. ![]() The next one is in 2020, and it has to be computerized. You have to have a census every 10 years. They’re facing a very difficult situation. The most recent one involved work on the U.S. Q: Having you been taking up interesting questions as part of the Jasons?Ī: Yes. There is a feeling (in Russia) that they are on their way to the stars. Q: Does that mean that the US doesn’t have the right culture for putting humans on Mars?Ī: Yes. For us, everything has to be a 10 year program. It strikes you immediately at Baikunor (launch complex in Kazakstan). Q: What are your feelings about the manned space program in the US? This country hasn’t had its own (completed) manned vehicle since the space shuttle program ended.Ī: It is not part of our culture. But it was a total failure as a way of getting into space. The Orion Project was, in a way, the high point of my involvement. On the other hand, I had some part in the space program. Of the four revolutions the one that has really been a failure is nuclear, and that’s the field I chose. It was clear that it was going to be an exciting 100 years. There was space, starting with V2 rockets, nuclear energy, starting with Hiroshima, the computer, starting with the Eniac, and the genome, starting with (Oswald) Avery’s experiments of pneumococcus. Q: When you were in your 20s, how did you think the world of technology would unfold?Ī: I was 20 in 1943, the middle of World War II. Otherwise there would be no point in hanging on so long. Q: You sound like a man who is enjoying your life. I tend to write reviews of other people’s books. I think I’m losing the ability to write, to some extent. ![]() Many writers continue to be good into their 70s or 80s. In the second half of my life, science has been a hobby. I decided that my gift is to be a writer. Or you become a teacher, if you have a gift for that. The question is: What do you do with the second part of your life?įor many people it is quite simple - you go into administration, where you can do a lot of useful things. So when you arrive at 40 there’s a mid-life crisis you don’t compete anymore with the brilliant young people. The really great theoretical physicists are mostly in their 20s and 30s. You lose the ability to do physics quickly. ![]() I don’t actually sit down and calculate the way I used to.Ī: I think theoretical physicists sort of have a mid-life crisis - an extreme case of it. I’m much more of a commentator and critic. Q: Why do you continue working at age 92?Ī: I wouldn’t say that I’m working. Princeton treats retired people generously. I have a bunch of friends and colleagues, even though I’ve been legally retired for 20 years. “What sets Dyson apart among an elite group of scientists is the conscience and compassion he brings to his work” - Kristi Coale, Salon.Q: Does it have a strong pull on your heart?Ī: That’s where I belong to the community. But far from wielding his conclusions like a bludgeon, Dyson wanted younger generations of scientists to take away one thing from his work - the necessity to create heresies of their own. He didn't not shy away from controversy his critiques of the politics of the global warming debate raised the hackles of some environmentalists. His book A Many-Colored Glass tackles nothing less than biotechnology, religion and the role of life in the universe. In addition to his work as a scientist, Dyson was a renowned and best-selling author. In his 60-year career as one of planet Earth's most distinguished scientists, several things characterize Dyson more than anything else: compassion, caution and overwhelming humanism. It would be wrong, however, to categorize him as a publicity-hungry peddler of headline-grabbing ideas. From inventing Dyson Spheres, a sci-fi conceit postulating habitable shells around Sol-like stars, to "space chickens" and trees that grow in comets, Freeman Dyson was not afraid to go out on a cosmic limb. ![]()
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