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richard feynman has a message for everybody

Tesseract

Tesseract

Banned
the message

Richard Phillips Feynman (play /ˈfaɪnmən/; May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American physicist known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as in particle physics (he proposed the parton model). For his contributions to the development of quantum electrodynamics, Feynman, jointly with Julian Schwinger and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965. He developed a widely used pictorial representation scheme for the mathematical expressions governing the behavior of subatomic particles, which later became known as Feynman diagrams. During his lifetime, Feynman became one of the best-known scientists in the world. In a 1999 poll of 130 leading physicists worldwide by the British journal Physics World he was ranked as one of the ten greatest physicists of all time.

He assisted in the development of the atomic bomb and was a member of the panel that investigated the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. In addition to his work in theoretical physics, Feynman has been credited with pioneering the field of quantum computing, and introducing the concept of nanotechnology.
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xuDgv.jpg
 
U

UrbanRats

Member
What the fuck?! I was listening to that song and paused it to watch the video; i thought itunes had a problem for a second.
 
A

AlteredBeast

Fork 'em, Sparky!
astroturfing said:
this is the guy who went out partying with his Manhattan project scientist buddies after they heard Hiroshima and Nagasaki were succesfully wiped out.

it's true. he said so himself.

don't mean to troll but the guy was no saint.
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meh. they knew what they were making, none of them are saints. At least he had the sense to understand that something so huge and powerful was at least going to stop the war and prevent even more lives lost.
 
A

astroturfing

Member
AlteredBeast said:
meh. they knew what they were making, none of them are saints. At least he had the sense to understand that something so huge and powerful was at least going to stop the war and prevent even more lives lost.
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it is the most destructive thing humans have ever done to each other.. and to go partying after the fact just seems simply perverse. monstrous even. unless if you think that Japanese lives were worthless at the time. or that they were evil or something.

yes it was WW2, but i don't think that justifies it at all. i've grown up in a country that fought in WW2, some of the oldest relatives i have fought in it. they have said the idea of wiping out entire cities in an instant was pretty immoral back then too, and didn't seem absolutely necessary.

i can understand the development of the bomb though, because it was feared that the Nazis could get it first. so it had to be done. but to actually use it to instantly wipe out a staggering amount of Japanese families as real as yours or mine, who had no chance to escape... i think such a tactic is 100% indefensible no matter what the scenario. Japan didn't have nukes, America was in no danger of being wiped out.

but i apologize for derailing, i'll stop now. i actually REALLY like the guy too :p purely for his scientific insights though.
 
Tesseract

Tesseract

Banned
fuck this mayan bullshit. feynmania, bitches.
If, in some cataclysm, all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence passed on to the next generation of creatures, what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words? I believe it is the atomic hypothesis that

All things are made of atoms-little particles that that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another.

In that one sentence, you will see, there is an enormous amount of information about the world, if just a little imagination and thinking are applied.
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https://www.khanacademy.org/
 
Tesseract

Tesseract

Banned
A

Amir0x

Banned
I love it when a Scientist also knows how to speak such lovely poetry. Always makes consumption of this amazing, fascinating world of ours so much more... wonderful. If that were even possible.
 
T

Trent Strong

Banned
Amir0x said:
I love it when a Scientist also knows how to speak such lovely poetry. Always makes consumption of this amazing, fascinating world of ours so much more... wonderful. If that were even possible.
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I don't like it when scientists try to be poetic. Scientists should be hard minded hard cunts. They shouldn't sound like hippies. Science is supposed to be bad ass, not poetic and feelingsy.
 
A

A Fish Aficionado

I am going to make it through this year if it kills me
He just wanted some orange juice.

Is the Pauling story of that song true?


Los Alamos from Below is a great talk.
 
K

Kieli

Member
The most absurd thing is that Mr. Feynman is a Putnam fellow. Yet his IQ score was a paltry 126.

Reinforces even more how silly the IQ tests are. What are they even measuring, exactly?
 
L

Learn2read

Member
One of my personal heroes.

Although this doesn't relate to his personal genius and why you should be interested in him, it is heartbreaking and beautiful:

http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/02/i-love-my-wife-my-wife-is-dead.html said:
In June of 1945, Arline Feynman — high-school sweetheart and wife of the hugely influential physicist, Richard Feynman — passed away after succumbing to tuberculosis. She was 25-years-old. 16 months later, in October of 1946, Richard wrote his late wife the following love letter and sealed it in an envelope. It remained unopened until after his death in 1988.

(Source: Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman; Image: Richard Feynman, via.)

October 17, 1946

D’Arline,

I adore you, sweetheart.

I know how much you like to hear that — but I don't only write it because you like it — I write it because it makes me warm all over inside to write it to you.

It is such a terribly long time since I last wrote to you — almost two years but I know you'll excuse me because you understand how I am, stubborn and realistic; and I thought there was no sense to writing.

But now I know my darling wife that it is right to do what I have delayed in doing, and that I have done so much in the past. I want to tell you I love you. I want to love you. I always will love you.

I find it hard to understand in my mind what it means to love you after you are dead — but I still want to comfort and take care of you — and I want you to love me and care for me. I want to have problems to discuss with you — I want to do little projects with you. I never thought until just now that we can do that. What should we do. We started to learn to make clothes together — or learn Chinese — or getting a movie projector. Can't I do something now? No. I am alone without you and you were the "idea-woman" and general instigator of all our wild adventures.

When you were sick you worried because you could not give me something that you wanted to and thought I needed. You needn’t have worried. Just as I told you then there was no real need because I loved you in so many ways so much. And now it is clearly even more true — you can give me nothing now yet I love you so that you stand in my way of loving anyone else — but I want you to stand there. You, dead, are so much better than anyone else alive.

I know you will assure me that I am foolish and that you want me to have full happiness and don't want to be in my way. I'll bet you are surprised that I don't even have a girlfriend (except you, sweetheart) after two years. But you can't help it, darling, nor can I — I don't understand it, for I have met many girls and very nice ones and I don't want to remain alone — but in two or three meetings they all seem ashes. You only are left to me. You are real.

My darling wife, I do adore you.

I love my wife. My wife is dead.

Rich.

PS Please excuse my not mailing this — but I don't know your new address.
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A

Archer

Member
All things are made of atoms-little particles that that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another.
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Much like marriage.
 
dsp

dsp

Member
Feynman is a fascinating man and I love hearing him speak, but that video and basically everyone like it is terrible. That music...
 
EviLore

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
Tessebump.

I’m reading “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” right now, most of the way through, and it’s a joy to read. He covers the story of his life with such a positive, fun-loving energy, always brimming with intellectual curiosity but never self-serious.

You’ll never see the Manhattan Project the same.:messenger_tears_of_joy:
 
Tesseract

Tesseract

Banned
he's truly brilliant, i don't leave my house without the feynman lecture series

i set out to emulate his ethic when i was 19 or so, 34 now and maybe the best decision i've ever made

these two quotes will remain above my door until i'm dead

'what i cannot create, i do not understand'
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'know how to solve every problem that has been solved'
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