Volume 40, Number 5 · March 4, 1993
The Great Diversifier
By Roger Penrose
From Eros to Gaia
by Freeman Dyson
Pantheon/A Cornelia and Michael Bessie Book, 371 pp., $25.00
Distinguished physicist, astronomer, pure mathematician, arms control expert, government adviser, futurologist, environmentalist, humanitarian, and author—Freeman Dyson is a polymath well worthy of that description. It is not merely the scope and the depth of his knowledge, understanding, and technical expertise that set him apart, nor is it just his literacy and exquisite writing style. More importantly, it is the originality and the deeply personal quality of his views; for he is a man who thinks and feels for himself. Though his opinions are frequently influenced and stimulated by others, often writers from the past as well as from the present, or by his own particular experiences and acquired technical know-how, the views that he ultimately expresses so elegantly are the results of his own thoughtfulness, whatever these external influences may have been. His opinions cannot be pigeon-holed as, say, 'left' or 'right' or 'green' or 'technological' or 'dovish' or 'hawkish.' Each issue is approached afresh and is thought through on its merits. It is our good fortune that he writes so well, unusual for a mathematical scientist, and that he is not afraid to put forward his views in a bold and forthright matter.
Review, 3781 words
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