

The danger of cosmic genius - davi
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/2010/12/the-danger-of-cosmic-genius/8306/

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iwwr
This whole article is an academic's idea of an _ad hominem_ attack.

"Brilliant", a "cosmic genius", yet "dumb", "emotionally incapable of
understanding", and further a lame attempt at psychoanalysis; instead of
actually appealing to Dyson's statements and trying to combat them with facts.

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varjag
Yes, it's pretty sure the longest ad hominem I read in my life so far.

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mquander
This is hilarious. The article spends N pages of intermittent insults and
biography and then deigns to write exactly _one sentence_ describing what
might actually be wrong with his views: _"They promise side effects,
backfirings, and unintended consequences on a scale unknown in history, and we
lack the financial and political wherewithal, and the international comity, to
accomplish them anyway."_ Is this our cue to nod sagely and stroke our beards?
Flagged as crap, filed into the "Dangerous Knowledge" cabinet.

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hugh3
It is crap, but it's interesting crap. It's wrong, but it's wrong in an
interesting way. And a discussion on Freeman Dyson is always worthwhile.

But now it's dead. Sic transit gloria frontpage.

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vixen99
'Dead wrong (about global warming)'? For this to be true, there would have to
be a demonstration that net positive feedback effects from increasing
atmospheric CO2 (leading to runaway warming) have been <conclusively> shown to
be taking place.

I would guess that Dyson along with other sceptics has not seen such
irrefutable evidence which would kill anti-AGW views.

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alanfalcon
Mosly unrelated: What struck me from reading this article is how much the
Dyson family obviously served go influence Neil Stephenson. From the birth of
digital processing (Diamond Age) to Aleutian canoes (Snow Crash) to the
depiction of Orion's nuclear space ark (Anathem) ... Makes me wonder what
other sources of inspiration Neil might have out there. Perhaps I should
actually read the acknowledgments in Stephenson's books.

