Dear Professor Dyson: Twenty Years of Correspondence Between Freeman Dyson and Undergraduate Students on Science, Technology, Society and Life

Dear Professor Dyson: Twenty Years of Correspondence Between Freeman Dyson and Undergraduate Students on Science, Technology, Society and Life
ISBN-10
9814675873
ISBN-13
9789814675871
Category
Science
Pages
350
Language
English
Published
2016-03-15
Publisher
World Scientific
Author
Dwight E Neuenschwander

Description

' Freeman Dyson has designed nuclear reactors and bomb-powered spacecraft; he has studied the origins of life and the possibilities for the long-term future; he showed quantum mechanics to be consistent with electrodynamics and started cosmological eschatology; he has won international recognition for his work in science and for his work in reconciling science to religion; he has advised generals and congressional committees. An STS (Science, Technology, Society) curriculum or discussion group that engages topics such as nuclear policies, genetic technologies, environmental sustainability, the role of religion in a scientific society, and a hard look towards the future, would count itself privileged to include Professor Dyson as a class participant and mentor. In this book, STS topics are not discussed as objectified abstractions, but through personal stories. The reader is invited to observe Dyson''s influence on a generation of young people as they wrestle with issues of science, technology, society, life in general and our place in the universe. The book is filled with personal anecdotes, student questions and responses, honest doubts and passions. Contents:Walking with GrandfatherLiving in the QuestionsA Hexagonal MountainMartha and MaryEngines With SoulsSteered From AfarThe Swamp AngelRapid RuptureArsenals of FollyTo Touch the Face of the StarsSilenceThe Chainsaw and the White Oak"Why Should I Care?"Playing GodBonds of KinshipTwo WindowsDoubt and FaithDreams of Earth and SkyFamily First Readership: Students and academicians who are interested in issues related to science, technology and society. Key Features:Removes objective detachment and makes STS issues personal through story-telling: Science, technology and society issues are not merely objects of study; they are experiences, they are choices to be lived. Student real-time responses to Professor Dyson''s insights bring the correspondence to lifeIncludes honest questions that are more important than snappy answers: Few STS issues have black-and-white answers; they are, rather, about understanding the questions. For example, do we own our technology, or does our technology own us?Shows all things are connected: Practically every STS topic, it seems, reduces to values and ethics. STS issues are ultimately about relationships between us and nature, our machines, other species, other people — and ourselves. STS issues are too important to be left to scientists and technologistsKeywords:Freeman J Dyson;Disturbing the Universe;Science Technology and Society;Bronowki, Jacob;Astronomical Habitat;Automation;Blake, William;Bomber Command;Car Culture;Chacón, Efrain;Climate Change;Cloning;Cold War;Cosmic Unity;Cosmology;Deforestation;Doubt and Faith;Dickens, Charles;Dyson, Alice;Dyson, Freeman J;Dyson, George;Dyson, Mildred;Einstein, Albert;Evolution;Fundamentalism;Future;Genetic Technologies;Greenhouse Effect;Homogenization of Society;Hydrogen Bomb;Environmental Sustainability;Exponential Growth;Environmental Sustainability;Hubbert''s Peak;Kaufmann, Walter;Manhattan Project;Marshall, Joseph III;Masters, Edgar Lee;Mutual Assured Destruction;Native Americans;Nuclear Weapons;Oil Consumption;Pirsig, Robert;Population;Project Orion;Quetzal Education Research Center;Reverence For Life;Schweitzer, Albert;Science And Religion;Silence;Six Faces of Science;Space Exploration;Standing Bear, Luther;Stem Cells;Strategic Air Command;Thoreau, Henry David;Turkle, Sherry;Urban Sprawl;White Oak Model'

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