

Freeman Dyson on Heresy, Climate Change, and Science - Shmulkey
http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2011/03/dyson_on_heresy.html

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grovulent
While I love econtalk and listen to it every week - I'm actually a bit
surprised that it's this podcast that made it to the front page. To me it felt
a bit meandering and russ really seems to struggle at points in keeping the
conversation going.

Some of the recent podcasts that I thought were much more deserving of front
page-hood:

[http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2011/02/cowen_on_the_gr.htm...](http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2011/02/cowen_on_the_gr.html)
<http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2011/01/deer_on_autism.html>

[http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2011/01/hanson_on_the_t.htm...](http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2011/01/hanson_on_the_t.html)

These three were incredibly thought provoking and still have my mind in a
flurry. Check them out if you haven't.

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michaelpinto
I disagree with his views on climate change — but I loved his insights into
space travel vs. space science. Definitely a podcast worth listening to...

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ANH
Dyson does have a point about "fudge factors" incorporated into current
models, which is why it's such a shame the recent Orbiting Carbon Observatory
and Glory satellite launches failed. Climate change _is_ real, but we still
need more eyes in the sky.

Here's hoping SpaceX and their ilk help reduce launch costs enough that these
failures aren't so disastrous.

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drallison
This is old news. Freeman's "heretical ideas" were expressed in 2007 in
Brockman's online journal, <http://www.edge.org>. There was also the NY Times
article published in 2009,
<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/magazine/29Dyson-t.html>. Freeman Dyson is
wrong in this instance; I, for one, wonder why a credible scientist and
thinker would choose to take a scientifically unsupportable position.

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shadowfox
> wonder why a credible scientist and thinker would choose to take a
> scientifically unsupportable position.

He doesn't think it is scientifically unsupportable clearly.

