Imagined Worlds (Jerusalem-Harvard Lectures)

By Freeman Dyson

Book Overview

How might we mitigate the evil consequences of technology and enhance the good? Using hypothetical and genuine examples of the advancement of science and technology (past, present and future), the author attempts to answer this question and examines the ethics involved.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674539087
• ISBN13: 9780674539082
• Release Date: April 1997
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.98 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 1.0" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Funding for Tokamak fusion energy canceled - WB7 feasiblity promising.

Fusion: 1. The tragedy of nuclear fission is nobody wants to build a new fission power plant. Fission nuclear energy is expensive maintain and build, produces toxic byproducts requiring expensive storage-complex regulations-and risky transportation, and it does not meet energy demand curves of exponential power consumption. 2. The promoters of fusion are not experimenting with a variety of fusion schemes looking for a machine that will in the marketplace. At the same time Tokamak was being developed, Wiffle ball fusion was researched. However, Wiffle ball fusion was kept in obscurity and papers were not allowed to be published. Tokamak fusion was selected to be the future of fusion energy and not allowed to fail. Because Tokamak was not allowed to fail, newer and better fusion schemes did not emerge. Eventually Tokamak technology was abandoned and Tokamak funding cut. The Tokamak was not a unreliable source of fusion energy, yet, money was wasted because the Tokamak was chosen as the energy producer for the twenty first century. All the countries with serious fusion programs have built a Tokamak. The Tokamak cost 50 billion dollars. 3. The Tokamak uses a toroidal magnetic field to contain plasma. The Tokamak is characterized by rotational symmetry. The ions and electrons in the center of the fusion plasma have very high temperatures. The ions and electrons must be contained in the central region. The plasmas are prone to rapid instability and lose their containment. The toroidal magnetic field keeps the plasma on the surface. Deterium and tritium are introduced after a temporary shutdown. The plasma is heat to 100 million degrees Celisius. High frequency electromagnetic wars outside of the torus interacts their energy with charged particles in the plasma. The resonance increases the temperature of the plasma. 4.Charged particles in a magnetic field follow a Lorentz force and follow helical paths along the field lines. 5.Tokamak Energy production is not cost effective because more energy is required to produce the plasma then the plasma outputs in electricity. Tokamak producers no longer claim that it will be cheap. Tokamak stopped the conventional approach to fusion development. What the world needs is a small, compact, flexible fusion technology that could make electricity where and when it is needed. Electricity prices that consumer can afford and infrastructure costs that private industry can fund. 6. The solution is WB7. WB7 is a low cost solution to Fusion reaction. Energy matter conversion is the goal 7. Fusion is the energy that powers the Universe. Energy is released when light nuclei are fused. 8. The ultimate fuels are hydrogen into helium 9. Deuterium and tritium yields 17.6 million units of energy making fusion exciting. 10. Magnetic fields trap the particle field, right hand to the magnetic field. Torial tube contained the particles in a continuous container, the Tomak. 11. 1000 gyro Deuterium and tritium jumps b

As Always, Dyson Challenges Humanity to Think More Broadly

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

Mind-Expanding

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.

It's Dyson. Need I say more?

There is little more fascinating then reading the thoughts of great minds. Dyson has seen and done much in his lifetime, and the chance to receive some of his wisdom should not be passed up. This is a collection of ideas and thoughts (taken from a set of lectures), that cover a lot of ground, but are loosely based around the impact of science on society, how it can be abused when misused, but more importantly, some of the opportunities it offers us for the future if we use it well.My only criticism on this book is its shortness. At just over two hundred rather spaced out pages, there is sadly a shortage of content, which is a great shame since Dyson clearly has a lot of ideas worth sharing. But I suppose that these are the ideas he wants to share the most, and by keeping it brief, he allows us to focus on them better, without being sidetracked by less important information.While readable by just about anyone, those with some basic familiarity with science will get more out of it, while scientists will probably appreciate it even more. This book is more about the application of science then science itself, so understanding the science in it allows the reader to concentrate on what Dyson really wants to say.

The insights of Dyson's brilliant mind are showcased in I/W.

Freeman Dyson proves once again (not that any proof is actually necessary) that his mind manifests an extraordinary blend of brilliant insights and childlike wonder. The book is both accessable to the layman as well as thought provoking to the intellectually gifted. It is a shame that Freeman Dyson is not a household name. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has so much as a passing interest in science. In fact, I would even recommend it to those who don't.