Freeman Dyson Interview (page: 3 / 6) Theoretical Physicist and Author	Print Interview

What is the role of the scientist when it comes to these major life-changing breakthroughs? What are the social responsibilities of the scientist?

Freeman Dyson: We have a responsibility in two ways I would say. First of all, it's the simple fact that we know the technology. We know what's possible, and we know what isn't possible, very largely. So we can warn the public what the problems are going to be, a little bit before they arise politically. So we can provide an early warning system, which can be very helpful. The scientists certainly have a function to keep the public informed about what's going on.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. The different function of scientists, which I think is equally important, is that we are a very successful international enterprise. That we are every day working together with friends and colleagues all over the world, including places which are hard to get to. We have friends and colleagues in China and in Cuba and in Mongolia, all sorts of places, all around the world. We're accustomed to working together with people. We know them as friends, and so we are actively in communication. I think that's extremely precious. We understand the scientists all over the world better than the politicians understand each other. Which frequently happens, that when a political problems arises, as it often does -- especially in questions involving war and weapons -- that the scientists are able to communicate with the people on the other side, and actually find a way, then, to making agreements. So many of our arms control treaties have actually been architected by scientists. Although in the end, of course, it's the politicians who have to decide what kind of treaties to negotiate, but very frequently these international contacts, which the scientists live with, have been enormously helpful. So that the mere fact that we know how to get along with people with different political views, I think, gives us a very important influence. So many of my friends who work in the government are actually working more or less as diplomats, rather than as scientists, because they have that particular background which politicians desperately need.

What about the fate of living creatures in the universe? Do we have a future?

Freeman Dyson: Oh, we have lots of future. Life is immensely tough. I don't see any way in which we can bring life to an end on this planet. Many people have tried to imagine that, but it's very hard to see it really happening. Life is here to stay. I think there's no question. It's only a matter of whether or not it spreads from this planet to take over the universe. That's something I would like to happen. It's exciting that we may do something to influence that.

What do you think the younger generation may live to see and experience that we in our lifetimes never will?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Freeman Dyson: I think the move of life, out from the planet into the universe, is something they very likely will see. That's also a question of genetic engineering, that we can engineer plants and animals, say, to live in Mars without having to just live in a tin can. But they could live in the Martian environment as it exists, so that you can imagine bringing life to a dead planet. That's, to me, very exciting. First of all, we have to find out if there's any indigenous life first. If there is indigenous life on Mars then I would leave it alone. But if it turns out there's nothing alive, then we might as well bring our own life. But it certainly has to be genetically engineered first. I think that's something we very likely will learn how to do in the next 50 years, to grow plants that can actually live outside -- out of doors -- in places like Mars, or the satellites of Jupiter, and various other interesting places. So that we can begin then, sort of the process of adapting life to living in all kinds of interesting places, and then evolving in its own way. Of course, once life is established, we won't any longer be in control. Life will evolve in the way it sees fit. That's something which will be very exciting to watch. That's something they might or might not actually achieve in their lifetimes.

We'd like to ask about your own early years. You grew up in England?

Freeman Dyson: Right.

Those were not the most tranquil times, in the 1930s and '40s. What was your childhood like?

Freeman Dyson: Well, we were protected from all that of course.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I had a rather idyllic childhood. Son of a schoolmaster, living in a quiet little town in the south of England where nothing much had changed for 500 years. But we saw the clouds gathering in the sky, of course. I mean, we knew Hitler was on his warpath, we knew World War II was coming along and was likely to be a bloodbath. In fact, we expected World War II to be much worse than it actually was. We had images of anthrax bombs already in those days. We all expected to die of plague, and somehow or other we survived. But it was a time when we were all very much on edge, and after -- I would say my idyllic childhood was maybe the first ten years -- and then after that when I was a teenager it got rough. Then we were faced with these terrible choices of whether or not to try to fight Hitler. We were also in the middle of an economic depression. So it wasn't an easy time.

How do you think you were affected by it?

Freeman Dyson: I think it made me grow up very fast.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I started to take on the burdens of society at a young age, and feel that whatever I did made a difference. I joined the Peace Pledge Union, which was a pacifist organization. That was our answer to Hitler. If we just get to talk to Hitler for six hours we could get him to see the error of his ways and everything would be fine. So there was a lot of that in the air. Our hero was Gandhi, of course, who had used passive resistance very affectively as a tool of liberation, and so we thought maybe that was a good idea. He was the only politician that I trusted in those days.

Ironically, he didn't trust England.

Freeman Dyson: He understood us pretty well.

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