The Limits of Science, an interview with Freeman Dyson
Posted by pwl on March 30, 2009
Freeman Dyson is professor emeritus of physics at the Institute for Advanced Study.
Advertisements
Paths To Knowledge (dot Science)
What is actually real in Objective Reality? How do you know? Now, prove it's real!
- PathsToKnowledge.science
PathsToKnowledge.NET
"The meaning of the world is the separation of wish and fact." - KURT GÖDEL
"According to Peirce's doctrine of fallibilism, the conclusions of science are always tentative. The rationality of the scientific method does not depend on the certainty of its conclusions, but on its self-corrective character: by continued application of the method science can detect and correct its own mistakes, and thus eventually lead to the discovery of truth".
A guiding principle for accepting claims of catastrophic global events, miracles, incredible healing, invisible friends, or fill in the blank is:
“extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” - Carl Sagan
"Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable." - H. L. Mencken
I would add irrational and highly delusional to the mix when faith requires one to accept magical violations of the well known, well tested or easily demonstrated laws of Nature. - PWL
"Science is Progress and the Future. Faith is regression to the Dark Ages." - PWL
“It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brains fall out.” - Carl Sagan
"It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring." - Carl Sagan Categories
- 1984 (13)
- A New Kind of Science [NKS] (9)
- Adult Supervision Required (57)
- Adventure (8)
- atheophobic (1)
- Avoiding Quesitons (11)
- Awesome (107)
- Awesome beyond awesome (58)
- Baby that became Zombie Jesus (14)
- Bad Ideas (29)
- Bad Science (59)
- Bad Science Attitude (51)
- bashing ingorant shit over the head with a shovel (8)
- Belief Stricken (67)
- Believe it Denier (3)
- Believe it or you are a Nazi! (3)
- Believe it or your a denier! (44)
- Big Brother Planetary Control System (66)
- Biology (56)
- books (4)
- British Columbia ICBC Police State (4)
- Britsh Columbia Police State (2)
- Business (8)
- CADIE rules the Earth we are doomed (1)
- Canadians (6)
- Cannibalism (2)
- Caustic Scientists (22)
- Charles Darwin (7)
- Climate Science (209)
- Climategate (74)
- Colonization (1)
- Complex Systems (149)
- Conspiracy Theory (36)
- Constitutional Law (1)
- Damn it! (27)
- Debunking Bad Environmentalism (132)
- Definition of Terms (13)
- Dinosaurs (3)
- Disasters (15)
- Do Not Click At Work (13)
- Doomsday Claim (2)
- Doomsday Claim Database (1)
- Doomsday Claim Falsified (6)
- Double Yikes!! (74)
- Dreaming (5)
- Dupenhagen aka Copenhagen 2009 (19)
- Eaten Alive (6)
- Eco-Junk Science Terrorists (5)
- Eco-zombie Terrorists (7)
- Eeek! (56)
- Energy (49)
- Entertainment (11)
- Ethics in Science (169)
- Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick (125)
- Exercise For the Reader (7)
- Exercise for the Reader (that's you) (92)
- Film (45)
- Food (12)
- Fun (116)
- Gay (4)
- Get some perspective people (138)
- Good science attitude (27)
- Graphics (5)
- Gravity (24)
- Green Religion (13)
- Hard Science (182)
- Hard Science Required (178)
- Health (25)
- History (27)
- History and Semantics of Citizenship (1)
- Holding those who run the world responsible for their crimes against humanity (108)
- Homophobic (1)
- Human|Ape (194)
- Humbled by Nature (315)
- Hypnosis (1)
- Ick! (15)
- Ideas Crazy Enough to Have a Chance (46)
- Ignorance to Knowledge (283)
- Insanity beyond Insanity (19)
- Intel Larrabee (2)
- Intelligent Designer (2)
- Intelligent Designer – Yeah Right (123)
- Invaders from Earth (20)
- Invisible Friend Crowd (59)
- Is Obama a Natural Born Citizen or NOT (3)
- It's weather AND climate! (11)
- It's weather not climate (2)
- It's weather not climate – yeah right! (1)
- It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you (81)
- Law (1)
- Lawn Chair Larry (1)
- Learning about Science Organizations (9)
- Lightsabers (1)
- Live Brains! (17)
- Majestic Universe (72)
- Making a REAL Positive Difference in the World (5)
- Man on Wire (1)
- Mars (1)
- Math (10)
- Medicine (3)
- Mind Numbing Questions (1)
- Music (3)
- My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence (52)
- Natural Born Citizen (3)
- Nazis (5)
- Neuro Linguistic Programming (1)
- NVidia (1)
- Occupy (1)
- Ontology of Being (7)
- Open Letters (2)
- Painting Elephants (2)
- Paradigm Shift (9)
- Parallel Computing (2)
- People|Reason (21)
- Bill Maher (4)
- Christopher Hitchens (15)
- Spock (1)
- Werner Erhard (1)
- People|Science (32)
- Freeman Dyson (4)
- James Randi (2)
- Milton Erickson (1)
- Noam Chomsky (1)
- Norman J Wildberger (1)
- Richard Dawkins (7)
- Richard Feynman (7)
- Stephen Wolfram (5)
- Steven Pinker (2)
- Philosophy (70)
- Police State Insanity (27)
- Politics (102)
- Proof God Can NOT Exist (31)
- Proofs (60)
- Proofs Needed (94)
- Quotations (8)
- Rational Thinking (205)
- RBE Total System Of Global Control (1)
- Real Climate Deniers (5)
- Reality Based Economics (39)
- Reality Based Environmentalism (110)
- Really Funny (71)
- Religio Sly-Fi (1)
- Religion (87)
- Respect Nature or Else (8)
- Saving Energy and Money (1)
- Scam? (8)
- Scams (58)
- Science Education (198)
- Science Ficition (30)
- Science Info Educational Videos (52)
- Science Missions (16)
- Science over Propaganada (164)
- Science Shows (20)
- Science Smackdown (54)
- Scientific Method (5)
- Sex (8)
- Sexist (1)
- SkyNet Battlefield Earth (15)
- Some Intelligent Designer (17)
- Something to think about (64)
- Space Travel (26)
- Splish Splash Taking a Bath (6)
- Spooky Action at a Distance (4)
- Stifling Dissent with Force (2)
- Tea Bagging (1)
- Terraforming Earth (12)
- TerrorForming Earth (56)
- Terrorfying (82)
- Tesla (1)
- The End is Nigh (103)
- The Ground is Falling Up! (18)
- The Sky Is Falling (82)
- The Stupid It Burns!!! (13)
- They got the math wrong! (5)
- Thriller Zombie Attacks (2)
- To Hell With You Buddy (24)
- Total Control Over Our Lives (49)
- UFO Proof (14)
- Vaporizing Earth! (12)
- Vehicles (17)
- Venus Project is Evil (2)
- Victor J Stenger (4)
- Video (328)
- Violent (40)
- Wait for it! (7)
- Waste Management (10)
- Watching the Watchers (13)
- WOW!!! (67)
- Yeah Right (24)
- Yikes! (129)
- Yikes! The sky is NOT falling! (42)
- Yikes! The sky really is falling! (15)
- Zeitgeist Is Evil (2)
- Zombie Environmentalists (14)
- Zombie Jesus (24)
- Zombies (15)
Top Posts
-
Recent Posts
- 50 Shades Of Raised Eyebrow: A Tribute To Spock
- The End of Science is Nye
- The latest hand-wringing “myth-buster” video roundly debunked
- Graphene Knife Edge Cutting Ice
- Atheism aka Science vs Tree of Religion
- Matrix of Design, Why Some Computer Scientists See What Other Scientists Can’t
- The Scientific Method
- Zeitgeist Resource Based Economy (RBE) requires Global Resource Control (GRC) which hides Total System Of Control (TSOC)
- Communism Isn’t Radical Enough says Jacque Fresco, Venus Project Founder and Zeitgeist Movement Inspiration
- It’s A Particle, No It’s A Wave, Wait It’s A Particle
- Amazing Mechanical Computers From the 1700’s
- Curosity Tempered With the Scientific Method Produces Real Science
- Why does the US Consitution Require That The US President Must Be A Natural Born Citizen?
- On the omni impotence of the alleged gods
- Catastrophic Human Caused Global Warming Falsified aka Proven Wrong
Recent Comments
Hitesh Seth on How Much Energy Is Required To… Michael Brunowski on Catastrophic Human Caused Glob… Tiberio Casini on Catastrophic Human Caused Glob… Tiberio Casini on Catastrophic Human Caused Glob… Daniel on Communism Isn’t Radical… Subscribe
-
1984 Adult Supervision Required Awesome Awesome beyond awesome Baby that became Zombie Jesus Bad Ideas Bad Science Bad Science Attitude Belief Stricken Believe it or your a denier! Big Brother Planetary Control System Biology Caustic Scientists Christopher Hitchens Climategate Climate Science Complex Systems Conspiracy Theory Damn it! Debunking Bad Environmentalism Definition of Terms Disasters Do Not Click At Work Double Yikes!! Dupenhagen aka Copenhagen 2009 Eeek! Energy Ethics in Science Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick Exercise for the Reader (that's you) Film Food Fun Get some perspective people Good science attitude Gravity Green Religion Hard Science Hard Science Required Health History Holding those who run the world responsible for their crimes against humanity Human|Ape Humbled by Nature Ick! Ideas Crazy Enough to Have a Chance Ignorance to Knowledge Insanity beyond Insanity Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right Invaders from Earth Invisible Friend Crowd It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you Live Brains! Majestic Universe My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence Philosophy Police State Insanity Politics Proof God Can NOT Exist Proofs Proofs Needed Rational Thinking Reality Based Economics Reality Based Environmentalism Really Funny Religion Scams Science Education Science Ficition Science Info Educational Videos Science Missions Science over Propaganada Science Shows Science Smackdown SkyNet Battlefield Earth Some Intelligent Designer Something to think about Space Travel Terraforming Earth TerrorForming Earth Terrorfying The End is Nigh The Ground is Falling Up! The Sky Is Falling The Stupid It Burns!!! To Hell With You Buddy Total Control Over Our Lives UFO Proof Vehicles Video Violent Watching the Watchers WOW!!! Yeah Right Yikes! Yikes! The sky is NOT falling! Yikes! The sky really is falling! Zombie Environmentalists Zombie Jesus Zombies
Pages
Archives
- March 2015
- February 2015
- September 2014
- July 2014
- May 2014
- March 2014
- January 2014
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- April 2013
- November 2012
- May 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
Meta
Visitors
Advertisements
- "Two important characteristics of maps should be noticed. A map is not the territory it represents, but, if correct, it has a similar structure to the territory, which accounts for its usefulness." - Alfred Korzybski
-
"Science is a search for basic truths about the Universe, a search which develops statements that appear to describe how the Universe works, but which are subject to correction, revision, adjustment, or even outright rejection, upon the presentation of better or conflicting evidence." - James Randi
"Hypotheses are nets: only he who casts will catch." - Novalis
"Nullius in verba. Take no one's word for it." - Motto of the Royal Society
"I'm trying to find out NOT how Nature could be, but how Nature IS." - Richard Feynman
"The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority, as such. For him, scepticism is the highest of duties; blind faith the one unpardonable sin." - Thomas Henry Huxley
“A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth.” Albert Einstein
"Science is empirical. Knowing the answer means nothing. Testing your knowledge means everything." - Lawrence Krauss
"Skepticism is the agent of reason against organized irrationalism - and is therefore one of the keys to human social and civic decency." - Stephen Jay Gould
"Science is best defined as a careful, disciplined, logical search for knowledge about any and all aspects of the universe, obtained by examination of the best available evidence and always subject to correction and improvement upon discovery of better evidence. What's left is magic. And it doesn't work." - James Randi Crucial to Science
Organizations
People|Ontology of Being
People|Political
People|Science
- Aage Niels Bohr
- Albert Einstein
- Alexei Alexeyevich Abrikosov
- Alfred Korzybski
- Anthony Watts
- Arthur C Clarke
- Ben Goldacre
- Benoit Mandelbrot
- Bernard d’Espagnat
- Bill Nye (The End is Nigh)
- Bjørn Lomborg
- Buckminster Fuller
- Carl Sagan
- Charles Darwin
- Chris Freeman
- Christopher Hitchens
- Dan Ariely
- David Deutsch
- David Suzuki
- Edward Teller
- Edward Wegman
- Fred Singer
- Freeman Dyson
- Gavin Schmidt
- Gerald E Marsh
- Gerald North
- Hendrik Tennekes
- Henrik Svensmark
- Ian Stewart
- Jacob Bronowski
- James Hansen
- James Randi
- Jerome J. Schmitt
- John Coleman
- Joseph A Schwarcz
- Joseph Weber
- Julius Sumner Miller
- Karl Popper
- Lawrence Solomon
- Linus Pauling
- Michael Barnsley
- Michael E. Mann
- Michael Ruse
- Milton H Erickson
- Neil deGrasse Tyson
- Nicholas Metropolis
- Norman J Wildberger
- Novalis
- Paul Erdos
- Piers Corbyn
- PWL
- PZ Myers
- Richard Feynman
- Richard Lindzen
- Robert Marsham
- Robert O Mendelsohn
- Robert Sapolsky
- Roger A Pielke
- Ross McKitrick
- Roy W Spencer
- Serge Lang
- Stanford R Ovshinsky
- Stephen McIntyre
- Stephen Schneider
- Stephen Wolfram
- Steven Pinker
- Syun-Ichi Akasofu
- Thomas Knutson
- Tim Patterson
- Timothy F. Ball
- Victor J Stenger
- Werner Erhard
- William Happer
People|Science-BAD-Attitude
People|Whacked Delusional
Political
Press
Resources
Science Fiction
- 10.5:_Apocalypse
- 2012
- Aliens
- An Inconvenient Truth
- Armageddon
- Artificial Intelligence
- Blade Runner
- Cat 6: Day of Destruction
- Cat 7: End of the World
- Crack in the World
- Day Earth Caught Fire
- Day the Earth Stood Still
- Deep Impact
- Earth
- End Day
- Rendezvous with Rama
- Solar Crisis
- Sunshine
- Supernova
- The 11th Hour
- The Brain That Wouldn’t Die
- The Core
- The Day After Tomorrow
- The Last Man on Earth
- The Mist
- The Quiet Earth
- Titan A.E. (After Earth)
- Total Recall
- War of the Worlds
- Waterworld
- When Worlds Collide
- Without Warning
Science Info
- Abrupt Climate Change
- Albedo
- Alternating Current
- Amazon Rainforest
- Anoxic Event
- Antarctic Ice Sheet
- Antarctica
- Anthropogenic
- Antimatter
- Arctic
- Arctic Methane Release
- Arctic Shrinkage
- Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation
- Atom
- Biosphere
- Calcium Carbonate
- Calculus
- Canadian Arctic Archipelago
- Carbon Capture & Storage
- Carbon Cycle
- Carbon Dioxide
- Carbon Dioxide Data
- Carbon Sink
- Climate
- Climate and C02
- Climate Change
- Climate Change & Agriculture
- Climate vs Weather – Nasa
- Cold Fusion
- Cosmoclimatology
- Critical State
- Curiosity
- Desertification
- Direct Current
- Dissolved Organic Carbon
- e=mc^2
- Earth's Atmosphere
- Economics of GW
- Ecosystem
- Effects of GW
- Electric Charge
- Electric Current
- Electric Field
- Electrical Circuit
- Electrical Potential
- Electromagnetic Force
- Electron
- Electron-volt
- Elementary Particle
- Energy
- Equator
- Erosion
- Evaporation
- Experiment
- Extinction Risk From CC
- Extraordinary Claims
- Extreme Weather
- Feedback
- Feynman diagram
- Fundamental Interaction
- General Semantics
- Geoid
- Geologic Temperature Record
- Glacier
- Global Cooling (GC)
- Global Warming (GW)
- Gravitation
- Gravitational Field
- Gravitational Waves
- Greenhouse Gas
- Greenland
- Greenland Ice Sheet
- Gulf Stream
- Holocene Climatic Optimum
- Holographic Principle
- Ice Age
- Ice Cap
- Ice Sheet
- Industrial Revolution
- Informal Science Education
- Knowledge
- Last Glacial Maximum
- Le Chatelier's Principle
- Lightning
- Magnetic Moment
- Magnetic_field
- Maunder Minimum
- Medieval Warm Period
- Milton Model
- Mitigation of GW
- Molecule
- Momentum
- Natural Environment
- Nature
- Nitrous Oxide
- Non-linear System
- North Atlantic
- North Atlantic Current
- Northern Sea Route
- Northwest Passage
- Null Hypothesis
- Ocean Acidification
- Oceans
- Pacific Decadal Oscillation
- Paleoclimatology
- Paul Davies
- Permafrost
- Phenology
- Planck Length
- Polar Bear
- Polar Ice Packs
- Proportionality
- Quantum Mechanics
- Rainfall
- Rational Trigonometry
- Retreat of Glaciers
- Roger Penrose
- Runaway Climate Change
- Runaway Greenhouse Effect
- Satellite
- Science
- Science Education
- Scientific Method
- Scientist
- Sea Ice
- Sea Level
- Sea Level Rise, Current
- Sea Surface Temperature
- Sol Solar System
- Sol, our star, the Sun
- Soothsayers
- Southern Ocean
- Spintronics
- Standard Model
- Stephen Hawking
- Stress, Portrait of a Killer
- Strong Interaction
- Temperature Gradient
- Temperature Record
- The Skeptical Environmentalist
- Thermoelectric Effect
- Thermoelectricity
- Thermohaline Circulation
- Thermohaline Circulation Shutdown
- Tide Gauge
- Tropical Cyclone
- Vapor Warming
- Voltage
- Walker Circulation
- Water
- Wave Particle Duality
- Weak Interaction
- Weather
- West Antarctic Ice Sheet
- World Population
Science Info Data
- Caught Green-Handed Climategate Scandal Indepth (PDF)
- Climategate EAU-CRU-Hadley Jones, Mann, et. al. Emails, Data and Program Files showing the crimes of the Climategate alleged scientists
- Selected Alleged Climate Data from Real Climate controlled by the alleged scientists, Jones, Mann, et. al., of Climategate caught in the act fraud fame
Science Info Educational Videos
- Arizona State
- Atheist Experience
- Atheist Experience playlists
- BBC World News
- BBC Worldwide playlists
- Berkeley
- Berkeley Events
- Berkeley Events playlists
- Big Think
- CassioPeia Project
- Center For Inquiry
- Climate Skeptic videos
- College Click tv
- Computer Science Unplugged
- Corbett Report
- Duke University
- ESA
- FFreeThinker
- Fizzics
- FORAtv
- FORAtv playlists
- Google Tech Talks
- Google Tech Talks Courses
- Hyperbolic Geometry
- Math Foundations
- MIT
- MIT Courses
- NASA Explorer
- NASA TV
- National Geographic
- Northwestern
- Northwestern playlists
- NPTEL
- NPTEL courses
- NVidia GPU Tesla CUDA
- Qualia Soup
- Rational Trigonometry
- ReasonTV
- Research Channel
- Research Channel playlists
- Rrichard Dawkins Videos
- Sciencentral
- Stanford
- Stanford Climate
- Stanford Courses
- Stress Response: Savior to Killer
- Stress, Portrait of a Killer
- Surendar Chandra’s
- The Science Network
- The Uniqueness of Humans
- Thinkwell Videos
- U of New South Wales
- U of New South Wales courses
- UCtv
- USC
- USC Marshall
- Wonderingmind42
- Yale
- Zuke 696
Science Missions
Sites
- Air Vent aka No Consensus
- An Elegant Chaos
- An Honest Climate Debate
- App In Sys GWS
- Atheist Experience
- Bad Astronomy
- Bad Science dot net
- Bishop Hill
- Center For Inquiry
- Chron Sci Guy
- Chronos
- Climate Audit
- Climate Audit [Mirror Site]
- Climate Crisis
- Climate Depot
- Climate Heretic, the
- Climate Progress
- Climate Scam, the
- Climate Science
- Climate Skeptic
- CO2 Sceptics
- CO2 Science
- Digital Diatribes
- Dr Roy Spencer
- Dvorak Uncensored
- Errors in IPCC climate science
- Friends Of Science
- Heartland ICCC
- I Love Carbon Dioxide
- Ice Age Now
- Ice Cap
- James Delingpole
- James Delingpole | Telegraph
- Jesus and Mo
- Joanne Nova
- John Coleman's Corner [Weather Channel Founder]
- Junk Science
- Long Now
- M4GW
- Mr Wiggles Loves You
- NASA JPL Eyes On Earth 3D
- Neuro Logica
- Not Evil Just Wrong
- Petition Project
- Pharyngula
- Phys Org
- Plognark
- Prometheus
- Randi
- Real Climate, controlled by Climategate alleged scientists Gavin Schmidt, Michael Mann, et. al.
- Reason
- Roger Pielke JR
- Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
- Science and Public Policy
- Science and Public Policy
- Skeptico
- Small Dead Animals
- Space Weather
- Stupid Evil Bastard
- Surface Stations
- The Ivory Tower
- The Science Network
- Watts Up With That
- Weather Action
- What Really Happened
- xkcd
- Zombie Research
Systems Science
Tools
Tools [BSD Style]
- 386BSD
- Apache
- Bbanshee
- BIND DNS
- BLAST
- Bouncy Castle
- BRL CAD
- BSD dot ORG
- bsdiff + bspatch
- bzip2
- Cake PHP
- Chord Project, the
- Chromium
- CLiki
- Cryptix
- diStorm64
- DragonflyBSD
- Expat
- Flatassembler
- Fluxbox
- FreeBSD
- Frog CMS
- Gallium 3d
- Haiku-os
- Image Magick
- IO Language
- JasPer
- JQuery
- Lifelines
- Little CMS
- LLVM
- Loki Library
- LUA
- MacFUSE
- Map Server
- Mesa 3d
- Minix3
- Mono Project
- Moo Tools
- Mozilla FireFox|Thunderbird
- NCurses
- NetBSD
- NginX
- Open Cobalt
- Open Croquet
- Open EXR
- Open Simulator
- Open+Web+Server
- OpenBSD
- Paint dot net
- PC-BSD
- PCC
- PostgreSQL
- PuTTY
- Python in Python
- QCcodo
- Radiance
- Raphael JS
- Ruby On Rails
- SCons
- Silverstripe
- SlimDX
- Smalltalk
- Sophie
- Sprout Core
- Squeak
- Steel Bank Common Lisp
- Subversion
- Symfony Project
- TOR
- Transmission Bit Torrent
- V8 JavaScript Engine
- WebKIT
- X
- XStream
- YASM
- Yii Framework
- Zend
Unethical Science
Leave a Reply