"Human beings are so constituted that we take for granted the fact that a direct awareness of our past selves is preserved... We take for granted the durability of the individual self. ...But ...the preservation of memories ...is as great an exercise in magic as the transfer of memories from the dead to the living. ...How the magic works ...is still a dark mystery. ...When once the technology exists to read and write memories from one mind to another, the age of mental exploration will begin in earnest. ...[W]e will look at nature directly through the eyes of the elephant, the eagle and the whale. We will... feel in our own minds the pride of the peacock and the wrath of the lion. That magic is no greater than the magic that enables me to see the rocking horse through the eyes of the child who rode it sixty years ago."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Academics from the United StatesAcademics from the United KingdomScience authors from the United StatesPhysicists from the United StatesChristians
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Ch. 17 : Butterflies Again, pp. 289-291
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Freeman_Dyson
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Freeman Dyson
1923 – 2020
englischer/US-amerikanischer Physiker und Mathematiker
89 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Freeman Dyson →
Related Quotes
"My first heresy says that all the fuss about global warming is grossly exaggerated. Here I am opposing the holy broth…"
"There’s very good news from the asteroids. It appears that a large fraction of them, including the big ones, are actu…"
"In desperation I asked Fermi whether he was not impressed by the agreement between our calculated numbers and his mea…"
"The biggest breakthrough in the next 50 years will be the discovery of extraterrestrial life. We have been searching …"
"I believe global warming is grossly exaggerated as a problem. It's a real problem, but it's nothing like as serious a…"
"All the books that I have seen about the science and the economics of global warming, including the two books under r…"
"The laws of nature are constructed in such a way as to make the universe as interesting as possible."
"The bottom line for mathematicians is that the architecture has to be right. In all the mathematics that I did, the e…"
"Anyone who compares the bibliography with the reprinted papers will notice that mathematics and physics have not been…"
"I do not claim any ability to read God's mind. I am sure of only one thing. When we look at the glory of stars and ga…"