George Dyson (born March 26, 1953) is an American non-fiction

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

and

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

technology Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...

whose publications broadly cover the evolution of technology in relation to the physical environment and the direction of society. He has written on a wide range of topics, including the

history of computing The history of computing is longer than the history of computing hardware and modern computing technology and includes the history of methods intended for pen and paper or for chalk and slate, with or without the aid of tables. Concrete devices ...

, the development of

algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of Rigour#Mathematics, mathematically rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algo ...

s and intelligence,

communications system A communications system is a collection of individual telecommunications networks systems, relay stations, tributary stations, and terminal equipment usually capable of interconnection and interoperation to form an integrated whole. Commu ...

space exploration Space exploration is the process of utilizing astronomy and space technology to investigate outer space. While the exploration of space is currently carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes, its physical exploration is conducted bo ...

, and the design of

watercraft A watercraft or waterborne vessel is any vehicle designed for travel across or through water bodies, such as a boat, ship, hovercraft, submersible or submarine. Types Historically, watercraft have been divided into two main categories. *Raf ...

Early life and education

Dyson's early life is described in

Kenneth Brower Kenneth Brower is an American writer known for his natural environment writings. His published works include articles with the National Geographic Society, The Atlantic Monthly, Smithsonian, Audubon, and several other periodicals. Brower's ...

's book ''The Starship and the Canoe.'' When he was sixteen he went to live in

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

to pursue his interest in

kayaking Kayaking is the use of a kayak for moving over water. It is distinguished from canoeing by the sitting position of the paddler and the number of blades on the paddle. A kayak is a low-to-the-water, canoe-like boat in which the paddler sits fac ...

. From 1972 to 1975, he lived in a

treehouse A tree house, tree fort or treeshed, is a platform or building constructed around, next to or among the trunk or branches of one or more mature trees while above ground level. Tree houses can be used for recreation, work space, habitation, a ha ...

at a height of 30 metres that he built from salvaged materials on the shore of

Burrard Inlet Burrard Inlet () is a shallow-sided fjord in the northwestern Lower Mainland, British Columbia, Canada. Formed during the last Ice Age, it separates the City of Vancouver and the rest of the lowland Burrard Peninsula to the south from the coa ...

. Dyson became a Canadian citizen and spent 20 years in British Columbia, designing kayaks, researching historic voyages and native peoples, and exploring the

Inside Passage The Inside Passage () is a coastal route for ships and boats along a network of passages which weave through the islands on the Pacific Northwest coast of the North American Fjordland. The route extends from southeastern Alaska in the United St ...

. He was, during this period, estranged from his father for some time.

Career

Dyson's first book, ''Baidarka'', published in 1986, described his research on the history of the

Aleutian kayak The baidarka or Aleutian kayak (Aleut: iqyax) is a watercraft consisting of soft skin (artificial or natural) over a flexible space frame. Without primarily vertical flex, it is not an ''iqyax''. Its initial design was created by the Aleut peo ...

, its evolution in the hands of Russian fur traders, and his adaptation of its design to modern materials. He is the author of '' Project Orion: The Atomic Spaceship 1957–1965'' and ''Darwin Among the Machines: The Evolution of Global Intelligence'', in which he expands upon the premise of Samuel Butler's 1863 article of the same name and suggests that the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

is a living, sentient being. His 2012 book ''Turing's Cathedral'' has been described as "a creation myth of the digital universe." It was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times 2012 Book Prize in the science and technology category and was chosen by University of California Berkeley's annual "On the Same Page" program for the academic year 2013–14. Dyson is the founder/owner of Dyson, Baidarka & Company, a designer of

Aleut Aleuts ( ; (west) or (east) ) are the Indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands, which are located between the North Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. Both the Aleuts and the islands are politically divided between the US state of Alaska ...

-style skin

kayak ] A kayak is a small, narrow human-powered watercraft typically propelled by means of a long, double-bladed paddle. The word ''kayak'' originates from the Inuktitut word '' qajaq'' (). In British English, the kayak is also considered to be ...

s; he is credited with the revival of the

baidarka The baidarka or Aleutian kayak (Aleut: iqyax) is a watercraft consisting of soft skin (artificial or natural) over a flexible space frame. Without primarily vertical flex, it is not an ''iqyax''. Its initial design was created by the Aleut peo ...

style of kayak. Dyson was a visiting lecturer and research associate at Western Washington University's

Fairhaven College Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies is an interdisciplinary liberal arts college at Western Washington University. Instead of completing the general education requirements at Western, students take interdisciplinary classes at Fairhave ...

and was Director's Visitor at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...

in Princeton, New Jersey, in 2002–03. He was a frequent contributor to

Edge.org Edge.org is a website for science and technology intellectuals. Its chief editor is the publisher and businessman John Brockman. The site is a critically noted online magazine exploring scientific and intellectual ideas. The website is prod ...

between 1998 and 2019.

''Turing's Cathedral''

''Turing's Cathedral'' is Dyson's fourth book. Though

Alan Turing Alan Mathison Turing (; 23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954) was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher and theoretical biologist. He was highly influential in the development of theoretical computer ...

is in the title, the book focuses on

John von Neumann John von Neumann ( ; ; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian and American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist and engineer. Von Neumann had perhaps the widest coverage of any mathematician of his time, in ...

and his 1946 attempt to build a computer at Princeton's

(known as the

IAS machine The IAS machine was the first electronic computer built at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey. It is sometimes called the von Neumann machine, since the paper describing its design was edited by John von Neumann, a ...

MANIAC I __NOTOC__ The MANIAC I (Mathematical Analyzer Numerical Integrator and Automatic Computer Model I) was an early computer built under the direction of Nicholas Metropolis at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. It ...

was the same machine later built at Los Alamos Laboratory). Dyson interviewed several people who knew von Neumann, including his father, Freeman Dyson. The book received mostly positive reviews. Brian E. Blank noted in his review " tensive biographical and institutional backgrounds", and concludes it with:

It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that ''Turing's Cathedral'' is an idiosyncratic, undisciplined, crazy quilt of a book. The reviewer had no preconceived notions about the sort of book that might be authored by a man who once lived for three years in a treehouse 95 feet above the ground, but the eccentricities of ''Turing's Cathedral'' do not seem inconsistent with what might be imagined. And yet, for all its flaws, shortcomings, and waywardness, it is a book that amply rewards its readers.

Media appearances

* ''To Mars by A-Bomb: The Secret History of Project Orion'' (BBC, 2003) * ''The Starship and the Canoe'' (1986)

Books

* ''Baidarka the Kayak'' * ''Darwin Among the Machines'' * ''Project Orion: The Atomic Spaceship 1957–1965'' * ''Turing's Cathedral'' * ''Analogia: The Entangled Destinies of Nature, Human Beings and Machines''

Personal life

George Dyson's parents were the theoretical physicist

Freeman Dyson Freeman John Dyson (15 December 1923 – 28 February 2020) was a British-American theoretical physics, theoretical physicist and mathematician known for his works in quantum field theory, astrophysics, random matrix, random matrices, math ...

and mathematician Verena Huber-Dyson. He is the brother of technology analyst

Esther Dyson Esther Dyson (born 14 July 1951) is a Swiss-born American investor, journalist, author, commentator and philanthropist. She is the executive founder of Wellville, a nonprofit project focused on improving equitable wellbeing. Dyson is also an ang ...

, and the grandson of the British composer Sir George Dyson. George Dyson and Ann Yow-Dyson have a daughter named Lauren. He lives and works in Bellingham, Washington.

References

External links

George Dyson's Flickr Photostream

Dyson, Baidarka & Company (Flickr Photostream by Thomas Gotchy)

* *
George Dyson: The story of Project Orion (TED2002)
*
George Dyson: The birth of the computer (TED2003)
** http://zenbeat.t-galaxy.com/e2703892.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Dyson, George 1953 births Living people American historians of science Freeman Dyson 20th-century American non-fiction writers People from Ithaca, New York American people of English descent 20th-century American historians 21st-century American historians 21st-century American non-fiction writers