Nature has more imagination!
I wrote a brief elegy for my late friend Freeman Dyson for the online thought-journal EDGE.org. Here’s how it looked:
BRIAN KEATING
Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of Physics, University of California, San Diego; Author, Losing the Nobel Prize: A Story of Cosmology, Ambition, and the Perils of Science’s Highest Honor
I met Mr. (not Dr., as he often reminded me!) Freeman Dyson in early 2016 at the beginning of his annual visits to La Jolla to escape New Jersey’s winters in his later years. It was the beginning of a wonderful friendship, not only with me, but also with my family. Freeman’s visit coincided with the birth of my third child, a daughter named Orli. It tickled me to see the pure joy Freeman (aged 94) had interacting with Orli and her older brothers. We hosted Freeman and his wife Imme for delightful dinners and conversation, and I had the honor of hosting several events with him as well, including the podcast interview that I will always treasure [see below].
In 2017, as my book Losing the Nobel Prize was coming together, I asked Freeman if he’d be willing to write me a “blurb”. Naturally in my request I slathered him with praise, which was not hard to do! I closed by telling him the truth: unlike me, he had actually “lost” a Nobel Prize he truly deserved! Freeman was a master of letters, as his final book, Maker of Patterns: A Life in Letters keenly attests. His response was classic-Freeman:
“Dear Brian, Congratulations for getting the book done, and my love to Orli. My problem with blurbs is that I have a strict rule not to write blurbs unless I have actually read the book, and I already have a big pile of unread books waiting. The idea is that a blurb is supposed to be an honest expression of information for the reader, not just a favor for the writer. Perhaps a silly old-fashioned idea. Anyhow I hope the book does well without my help. Yours ever, Freeman Dyson.”
Dear Brian
Congratulations for getting the book done, and my love to Orli. My problem with blurbs is that I have a strict rule not to write blurbs unless I have actually read the book, and I already have a big pile of unread books waiting. The idea is that a blurb is supposed to be an honest expression of information for the reader, not just a favor for the writer. Perhaps a silly old-fashioned idea. Anyhow I hope the book does well without my help.
Yours ever,
Freeman Dyson
Freeman, as always, was the epitome of class and graciousness. While my book arguably did do well, I know it will be challenging for those of us who knew him to continue to thrive without his “help.” His loss brings great sorrow, not only for me, but also for all those who have ever wondered so longingly about the meaning of it all. Let us continue to pursue wisdom about nature and do so humbly as he would — for as Freeman told me on many occasions, “nature has more imagination than we do!”
Here are a few of my treasured memories of interactions with Freeman:
In 2019 Freeman and Greg Benford (UCSD PhD 1967) had a conversation, moderated by Associate Director Brian Keating and hosted by the Clarke Center, about the deep future of humanity:
Freeman Dyson and Gregory Benford: Forseeing the Next 35 Years-Where Will We Be in 2054?
Freeman was a featured speaker at one of the very first events at the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination which I serve as associate director: the Starship Century symposium in 2013:
Freeman Dyson — Noah’s Ark Eggs and Warm-Blooded Plants
And we included him (drawn from our 2016 evening with Dyson) in the inaugural episode of our podcast, Into the Impossible alongside physicist David Kaiser and Rae Armantrout, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, as a writer-physicist who bridges multiple forms of imagination: Into the Impossible: Ep01 — Imagining the Impossible
My final interview with Freeman took place in 2018 on the publication of his final book: Maker of Patterns. We discussed the book, his career in science and letters, the role of creativity and subversiveness, the perils of prizes, and how nature can always outsmart humankind. I miss you Freeman…rest in peace.
Find other essays in his blessed memory by luminaries such as Esther Dyson, Martin Rees, David Kaiser, George Dyson, Jennifer Jacquet, Max Tegmark, Rich Muller, Susan Schneider, Gino Segre, Frank Tipler, Danny Hillis, Lee Smolin, and John Brockman here:
https://www.edge.org/conversation/freeman_dyson-remembering-freeman-dyson
