Skip to main content
Everyday science

Everyday science

Visionary glimpse into the 21st century

05 Nov 1999

The Sun, the Genome and the Internet: Tools of Scientific Revolution
Freeman Dyson
1999 Oxford University Press 142pp £15.99/$22.00hb

A more detailed review by Phil Anderson of Princeton University, US is in the November issue of Physics World magazine.

This delightfully written little book is full of typically Dysonian intellectual sparkle. It is based on three public lectures given at the New York Public Library in 1997, in which the physicist Freeman Dyson looked forward to the coming century, sharing with us his unique breadth of view and receptiveness to technical innovation.

After an introduction containing a few personal reminiscences, the first chapter is primarily an extended comment on the structure of scientific revolutions. He paints a vivid picture of science driven by successive waves of enterprising instrument-makers following the appropriate craft tradition of their time, which currently is software and the Internet. This chapter is the best of the book, supporting a coherent theme with such fascinating and disparate examples as Sanger’s overlapping genes, the Sloan survey to map the skies, and Penny Sackett’s Internet-connected “microlensing” survey.

In another chapter Dyson presents a sobering assessment of the possible uses from the Human Genome Project. He points out the real possibility of developing a self-perpetuating overclass that could afford designer children and gene therapy of various kinds. He also points out the many benefits – expected and unexpected – to be anticipated from detailed manipulation of the genetic material.

In spite of the many exciting ideas and the pellucid writing, it is uncertain whether Dyson took this assignment seriously or, for that matter, that one should examine the future in such a light-hearted tone as his. For example, there is no mention of global warming and sea-level rise nor any “sense of danger” with regard to the totally unexpected new directions that science (or society, for that matter) can take over the course of 100 years.

All that being said, this is a book that can be heartily recommended, if not for what it can tell us about the 21st century, then at least for what we can learn about what goes on in our own.

Copyright © 2024 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors