BKMEANNG.RVW   980419

"The Meaning of it All", Richard P. Feynman, 1998, 0-201-36080-2,
U$22.00/C$30.95
%A   Richard P. Feynman
%C   P.O. Box 520, 26 Prince Andrew Place, Don Mills, Ontario M3C 2T8
%D   1963/1998
%G   0-201-36080-2
%I   Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.
%O   U$22.00/C$30.95 800-822-6339 bkexpress@aw.com
%P   133 p.
%T   "The Meaning of it All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist"

This is a book of poetry.  No rhyme or metre, perhaps, but poetry
nonetheless.

In 1963 Feynman gave the second John Danz lecture series at the
University of Washington in Seattle, speaking on the topic "A
Scientist Looks At Society."  In three lectures he looked at science
itself (and the misunderstanding thereof), values, and our
"unscientific age."  These lectures have now been published for the
first time, seemingly from transcripts of tapes kept at the archives
of the California Institute of Technology.

Jacques Plante, a goalie in ice hockey, once asked "How would you like
a job where, every time you make a mistake, a big red light goes on
and 18,000 people boo?"  Feynman points out how very different the
scientific mindset is from the layman's by noting that every time you
*succeed* in science, everyone, including those who are cheering for
you, immediately try to prove you wrong.  And you look *forward* to
this.

As Feynman points out, nothing that he says could not have been said
in the seventeenth century.  There is nothing new here.  By the same
token, there is nothing to get old.  A passage on page 22, written
long before the Internet was conceived, explains something that is
extremely puzzling to non-scientific newcomers to the net.  "Most
people find it surprising that in science there is no interest in the
background of the author of an idea or in his motive in expounding it. 
You listen, and if it sounds like a thing worth trying, a thing that
could be tried, is different, and is not obviously contrary to
something observed before, it gets exciting and worthwhile."  This
attitude is shared by the scientist, and the techie, and the geek, and
explains why any thought of censorship is met with such visceral and
instant revulsion, even when proposed on behalf of such worthy
endeavors as the fight against pornography and hate literature.

This necessary uncertainty and doubt Feynman next applies to the
dogmas and beliefs of society.  In an interesting digression he seems
to be a bit hard on religion, but eventually comes to a conclusion
that most religious leaders could agree with: when religion and
science come into conflict, it is because "your God is too small."  He
notes that political systems are universally too badly flawed not to
seriously consider the alternatives.  His argument returns full circle
when he notes the tragedy of a political system which is so unsure of
itself that it must censure scientific fact.

The final lecture is the most impassioned and, it must be admitted,
perhaps the least well organized.  He starts by looking at the
scientific age we live in, and demonstrates that it is remarkably
unscientific.  Reactionaries, advertising, radiation, horoscopes,
mysticism, and flying saucers all come under analysis not so much for
what they are, but for the unquestioning acceptance they have and
demand.  The end of the lecture is rather undisciplined, but still
manages to make some interesting and important points about various
fields of education.

A valuable collection of thoughts not so much for the light that they
shine on society, but for the processes of thinking which could be of
ongoing benefit to it.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 1998   BKMEANNG.RVW   980419