Imagined Worlds (Jerusalem-Harvard Lectures) [ペーパーバック]

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 or perhaps ceased to exist at all. Fifth, at one hundred thousand years we can only speculate on an entirely different civilization than anything imagined today. Sixth, at one million years in the future Dyson asks questions about life and its quality but is totally nonunderstandable to us. Seventh, Dyson explores the nature of infinity and the death of universe.

What does the future hold? No one knows for sure but Freeman Dyson offers a compelling set of possibilities in "Imagined Worlds." He quotes from Samuel L. Gompers, founder of the American Federation of Labor, that this is what should happen in the future:
"We want more school houses and less jails,
More books and less guns,
More Learning and less greed,
More justice and less revenge,
We want more opportunities to cultivate our better nature" (p. 177).

Dyson believes this is fully achievable. If we can imagine it, we can accomplish it. This is a most uplifting and challenging read. Enjoy!

Spawned from a truly remarkable imagination, some of those futures stretch far into timescapes populated by descendants who may be as unrecognizable to us as we might be to them. Where humankind has spread itself throughout the galaxy and joined in an alliance with other sentient beings. In the not so distant future, Dyson envisages the human colonization of Mars, DIY genetics where a child may be able to design their next pet, and how humankind (and animals) might one day be networked together at the mental level using a technology he calls "radio-telepathy".

Dyson has also included the past as an example of how we can begin to plan for these fantastic futures, emphasizing how the most successful technologies have started with humble beginnings and why a lot of the big, government sponsored, ideologically driven science is usually destined to failure. He effectively employs historical instances to illustrate his point.

From the disastrous failure of the British Airship the R101, the similarly inspired and equally calamitous BOAC Comet, through to the environmental nightmare that was (and still is!) Chernobyl. All were the result of the `Napoleonic' or politically driven technologies.

Numerous historical examples are supplied to also demonstrate how "Tolstoyan" technologies, shining ideas brought to life in garages, backyards or small labs with lean funding and scarce resources are the source of the great majority of breakthroughs. One such example validates this by pointing out that a lot of the groundwork done in the field of particle physics was accomplished with improvised devices by a dedicated group of scientists. Now with drastically reduced funding, he proposes that this is the way forward for future discoveries and applications.

Most notably, his guidelines stress the importance of science as a vehicle to provide for the wellbeing of all peoples, not only a select few. Additionally while we must be ever watchful of the unethical or immoral applications of new technologies, we are also to be careful not to shackle human self-improvement with ignorance and fear.

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.