Home Propeller Head Plaza

Technical and scientific discussion of amps, cables and other topics.

[ Follow Ups ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Propeller Head Plaza ]
[ Alert Moderator ]

Feynman a genius? - Surely You Must be Joking !

Wellfed,

I read, "Surely you must be joking, Mr. Feynman" years ago- probably 30 when a NASA physicist who knew Feyman recommended it. Feynman's way of looking at the physical universe had an consistent, striking incisive quality as he never accepted conventional wisdom. From a deliberately conceptually confrontational standpoint, he began from a zero point and shaped connections and advanced ideas that were based on a kind of scientific uncertainty- the idea of "facts" about anything being in a constant state of flux and open to reinterpretation. And, he had this very open quality about mistakes he would make in his romantic life while thinking it's natural that just everything that happens is conne ted in the sense it's possible to learn something applicable to an entirely different field of study.

Today, I can't remember if the anecdote was from the book or my physicist frind told it to me, but at a symposium about particle physics, someone asked Feynmann if he believed that science would ever fully understand gravity and develop a system that could be "anti-gravity". Feynman, without skipping a beat, told the questioner that anti-gravity had been developed long ago- wasn't the floor he was sitting on actually supending him above the Earth in a steady state opposition to gravity?

Over the years I've felt very lucky to have met a number of really remarkable people, but after I read and heard about Feynman as a tot, I always thought how wonderful it would be to have spent time with him as his restless pursuit of fundamental principles thorugh his open logic is a compelling method.

I always found Feynman diagrams - these are visual descriptions of the interactions of particles- intriguing visually and once did a painting of them. I learned later that Feynman drove around in a van that he had covered with these diagrams and I thought what a wonderful Zen quality that concept had achieved.

The danger with Feynman, in my view, is to take some of his comments overseriously- out of context- as Feynman's didactic tendencies sometimes steered him to focus on provokative statements that are more to do with method than content- revealing analytical thought more than anything absolute. This was a paradox of an enigmatic personality who absolutely resisted the idea that any idea is absolute!

For some reason, I've long had this sense that the artistic counterpart of Feynman was Glenn Gould- someone else who never allowed himself forced feeding of any concept.

Feynman a genius? Surely you must be joking?


Cheers,

Bambi B

PS: Say, this is the first time I've ever looked at this forum and it's interesting always- I'll have to stop by more often!

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  Schiit Audio  

Follow Ups Full Thread
Follow Ups
You can not post to an archived thread.

[ Top Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]