Navigating Nature and Technology: The Life of George Dyson
This chapter explores George Dyson's unique upbringing and intellectual journey as the son of physicist Freeman Dyson, highlighting his formative experiences with groundbreaking technologies. It reflects on his unconventional lifestyle, such as living in a tree house and later purchasing an old tavern, as well as his early contributions to digital history at Blue Origin. The conversation also delves into the democratization of technology and the importance of pursuing personal passions in shaping one's life trajectory.
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I got to know George Dyson 23 years ago. When we started Blue Origin, one of the really cool and unusual things that happened is we hired a historian. We hired George to be there at the beginning and kind of see where this all began. We thought – not just because of hubris – we thought it was such a unique moment in history, to be able to try and make a go at going to space. George had us print shit out and stick it in a box. He said one of the big problems for historians is these days everything’s digital and just floats away and disappears and nobody has access to it. We’re losing this historical record, and I thought that was so interesting.
The truth is, George is just one of the most delightful people I know. He’s a wonderful human who has lived an absurdly unique life. An intense sense of humility, an intellect that I think is just world-class even though he opted not to take the route of building all the credentials. I learn a lot hanging out with George. As I’m sure most people know, he’s the son of the famous physicist Freeman Dyson. And Freeman died about a year before we recorded this at age 99. Freeman was a wonderful human with an expansive mind that contributed to so many different areas in physics. A lot of the ideas that we are still trying to figure out how to do in the universe, came from Freeman.
And so George grew up, obviously with Freeman, but at a time when Freeman was at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, with other luminaries in science. With John Von Neumann, with Einstein around, and so it made for George into a pretty unique guy.
I’m just thrilled to finally share him with you. We recorded this at his Tavern in Bellingham, Washington. George Lived in a tree house in his twenties, barefoot. We talk about that a little bit, but then he ended up taking the earnings from his first book and buying this old Tavern in Bellingham. It still is still serves as his workshop. We recorded there and as you’ll hear, it’s by the train tracks and we get a lot of noise from the train tracks. I apologize for any audio issues. I really screwed up the audio and we did everything we could to try and clean it up and make it good for you.
