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Infinite in All Directions: Gifford Lectures Given at Aberdeen, Scotland April-November 1985 ペーパーバック – 2004/8/3
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Infinite in All Directions is a popularized science at its best. In Dyson's view, science and religion are two windows through which we can look out at the world around us.
The book is a revised version of a series of the Gifford Lectures under the title "In Praise of Diversity" given at Aberdeen, Scotland. They allowed Dyson the license to express everything in the universe, which he divided into two parts in polished prose: focusing on the diversity of the natural world as the first, and the diversity of human reactions as the second half.
Chapter 1 is a brief explanation of Dyson's attitudes toward religion and science. Chapter 2 is a one–hour tour of the universe that emphasizes the diversity of viewpoints from which the universe can be encountered as well as the diversity of objects which it contains. Chapter 3 is concerned with the history of science and describes two contrasting styles in science: one welcoming diversity and the other deploring it. He uses the cities of Manchester and Athens as symbols of these two ways of approaching science. Chapter 4, concerned with the origin of life, describes the ideas of six illustrious scientists who have struggled to understand the nature of life from various points of view. Chapter 5 continues the discussion of the nature and evolution of life. The question of why life characteristically tends toward extremes of diversity remains central in all attempts to understand life's place in the universe. Chapter 6 is an exercise in eschatology, trying to define possible futures for life and for the universe, from here to infinity. In this chapter, Dyson crosses the border between science and science fiction and he frames his speculations in a slightly theological context.
- 本の長さ354ページ
- 言語英語
- 発売日2004/8/3
- 寸法13.49 x 2.01 x 20.32 cm
- ISBN-100060728892
- ISBN-13978-0060728892
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著者について
Freeman Dyson spent most of his life as a professor of physics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He was born in England and worked as a civilian scientist for the Royal Air Force in World War 2. He graduated from Cambridge University in 1945 with a BA degree in mathematics. He went on to Cornell University as a graduate student in 1947 and worked with Hans Bethe and Richard Feynman and went on to be appointed as a professor. His most useful contribution to science was the unification of the three versions of quantum electrodynamics invented by Feynman, Schwinger and Tomonaga. Dyson is a fellow of the American Physical Society, a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the Royal Society of London. In 2000 he was awarded the Templeton Prize for progress in Religion. In addition to his scientific work, Professor Dyson has found time for raising five daughters, a son and a step-daughter.
登録情報
- 出版社 : Harper Perennial; Reprint版 (2004/8/3)
- 発売日 : 2004/8/3
- 言語 : 英語
- ペーパーバック : 354ページ
- ISBN-10 : 0060728892
- ISBN-13 : 978-0060728892
- 寸法 : 13.49 x 2.01 x 20.32 cm
- Amazon 売れ筋ランキング: - 218,855位洋書 (洋書の売れ筋ランキングを見る)
- - 661位Outdoors & Nature Ecology (洋書)
- - 1,819位History & Philosophy of Science
- - 5,087位Engineering
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上位レビュー、対象国: 日本
レビューのフィルタリング中に問題が発生しました。後でもう一度試してください。
この本は、著者が62歳の1985年、英国の大学で行ったGiffordレクチャーを本にしたもの。歴史のあるGiffordレクチャーに講師として招かれる人は世界的に著名な学者。
本の内容は、著者がそれまでに関わった科学、工学、政治等の分野での経験に基づいて、その時点での彼の考えを表明したもの。私自身が大変興味をもった箇所を紹介すると以下の通り(私は英語の原本の方を読んだ)。
(1)「生命の起源」に関する研究の現状(1985年時点)と彼の見解。著者自身、「Origins of Life」を1985年に書き、1999年にその第二版を書いている。「ダーウインの進化論」に先行するテーマは、「ビッグバン宇宙論」と「生命の起源」である。著者自身の考え(モデル)も提示したうえで、科学者は後者に関しては未だ答えを見つけていないと表明。
(2)政治に関するパート(「Camels and Swords」)で興味深く読んだのは、「日本」に関する部分。著者はレクチャー・ツアーで1985年来日しているが、そのとき彼が会った日本の政治家との面談での経験を書いている。彼は、日本が当時のソ連から北方領土の返還を強く要求していることに驚いている。その際、引き合いに、昔のドイツ(プロシア時代)のケースに言及し[たぶん、ロシアにとられたケーニヒスベルグ(現カリーニングラドのことだろう。そこは数学者ヒルベルト、哲学者カントの生地)]、ドイツ人は日本ほどに獲られた領土に固執しなかった(それがドイツ人の本音かどうかは知らないが、私が原子力関係の仕事でドイツへ行った際、夕食パーティーで隣席の友にこの件の話をしたら、我々はその話はしない、それはタブーだといっていた)。ダイソン氏は日本の北方領土返還要求において、日米安保条約が障害になっているだろうと語り、この条約を通して日本が、米国の第三国との喧嘩に関わっている矛盾を語っている。もちろん、物理学者ダイソン氏は政治的には米国では反主流の考えの持ち主で、私の観点からは、ベトナム反戦運動以来著名なMITの言語学者チョムスキー氏と考えが似ている。ダイソン氏は、「日本は中立宣言をして、スイスのような国になれるはず」と語っている。(私見だが、そうならないかぎり、北方領土返還問題も、米軍基地問題も解決しないだろう。自民党にはできないことを民主党に期待したいところだが、ダメのようだ。)
(3)私が大変興味深く読んだのは、最終章「Butterflies Again」。ここで著者は、「科学」と「神学」の間のノーマンズ・ランド(no-man’s-land)にある5点のテーマに触れている:(a)「生命の起源」、(b)「人間の自由意志」、(c)「科学における目的論的考えの禁止」、(e)「我々の宇宙の、用意された「設計」による誕生(the argument from design as an explanatory principle)」、(f)「我々の存在の究極的目的は何か?」。これらの問題に対して科学者がこれまでに語ったこと、著者自身の見解が、最後の6ページに要約されている。


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Dyson's interest in the origins and evolution of life emerges clearly in this volume, and this discussion sparked in part by the debates over abortion and creationism is most welcome. His concern for cold war issues, especially a lengthy discussion of the place of Austria, seems someone archaic more than twenty years later.
Somewhere in the middle is Dyson's admittedly important perspective and provocative essay on "nuclear winter," a theory advanced by Carl Sagan and others in the 1980s that suggested that a nuclear exchange between the superpowers would trigger a worldwide ice age. He questioned the theory with some excellent points drawn, as he said, from his background. Indeed, science may be autobiographical, Dyson writes, for Carl Sagan drew his analogies for "nuclear winter" from his studies of the cold, dry environment of Mars and the dust particles in its thin atmosphere. This is one approach, Dyson concludes, but not the only one and he drew his analogies from the London fog. "We both use the same mathematics and both work with the same laws of physics. Why then do we reach different conclusions?" (p. 262). As he notes: "If the atmosphere after a nuclear war is filled with dry soot, the temperature on the ground will fall and the Earth will experience nuclear winter. If the atmosphere is filled with wet soot, the temperature on the ground will stay roughly constant as it used to do under a London fog. The severity of a nuclear winter depends on whether the soot-laden atmosphere is predominantly dry or predominantly wet" (p. 263). Moreover, since we live on a water-dominated planet Dyson believes that such a nuclear exchange would not trigger the type of ice age that Sagan advanced.
This does not mean that Dyson saw no threat to humanity in nuclear weapons. He certainly did. In fact, he spent considerable space ruminating on the choices that scientists must make in confronting such scientific questions. In all cases, the mode of science is to seek to disprove or at least modify any new theory. Doing so helps to self-correct the state of knowledge, and there is no higher calling in science. "Every new theory has to fight for its existence against intense and often bitter criticism," Dyson comments (p. 258). He then adds, "On the other hand, nuclear winter is not just a theory. It is also a political statement with profound moral implications" (p. 259). In such a situation scientists face a dilemma that cannot be minimized. They may take their normal approach as scientists and seek to disprove the theory, which Dyson believed in the case of nuclear winter would be successful, but doing so would provide the decision makers with cover for belligerent actions. As he wrote: "So my instinct as a scientist comes into sharp conflict with my instinct as a human being...What does a scientist do when science and humanity pull in opposite directions" (p. 259). He offered three possible solutions, one ignoring humanity and seeking to disprove the theory, another embracing humanity and nuclear winter as a theory. A third option, one followed by most scientists in the "nuclear winter" debate, was to privately seek to disprove but publicly to support the theory. He offered this succinct statement of this third approach: "it will not do us any good in the long run to believe a wrong theory, but it will not do us any good in the short run to attack it publicly, so let us keep silent and reserve judgment until the facts become clear" (p. 260). Dyson, like many others, chose that third option in the "nuclear winter" debate.
Dyson's discussion of "nuclear winter" is an especially useful object lesson in the nature and conundrums of scientific thought and practice. Those who hold the mistaken belief that scientific understanding is objective and linear will be well served in reading this case study. Scientific understanding is infinitely more complex, convoluted, interesting, and significant than most believe. Apply this issue to the major scientific debates of the present, of which there are many, and it is apparent that there are few easy answers.
As always, Freeman Dyson's work is challenging and thoughtful. "Infinite in All Directions," despite some essays that are a bit out of date, is a worthy contribution which all would profit by reading.

Even with this limitation, I would still endorse this work, as Dyson’s original thoughts and clear, engaging way of communicating them, is just remarkable.
