Richard. Feynman (1918-1988)
During World War II, he was an important figure in promoting the research and development of atomic bombs. After the war, Feynman taught at Cornell University and California Institute of Technology. 1965 won the nobel prize in physics for his research on quantum electrodynamics. In addition to being a physicist, Feynman is also a writer and artist. He is good at playing tambourine and can open all kinds of safes. Feynman died in 1988.
How did Feynman become a Nobel Prize winner from a small town boy?
As a good friend of Feynman, Ralph Leiden edited and published Feynman Classics: The Adventure Life of a Curious Person, which included 6 1 classic autobiographical articles by Nobel Prize winner and scientific urchin richard feynman, so that people could trace Feynman's adventures along the time of life: playing tricks on classmates at MIT, talking with Einstein at Princeton University, opening safes while developing atomic bombs, learning to play drums and joining samba bands.
Feynman's article shows his unique ideas and attitudes towards science, education and life, and also tells us that being an interesting person is more difficult and more important than winning the Nobel Prize.
The following content is selected from Feynman Classic: The Adventure Life of a Curious Person, which is a speech given by alan alda, a famous actor and director, at the graduation ceremony of California Institute of Technology, and is also the postscript of this book. Subtitles are added by editors and do not belong to the original text. It has been authorized by the publishing house to publish.
Feynman Classic: The Adventure Life of a Curious Man, edited by Richard P Feynman and Ralph Leiden, translated by Li Pan, unread by explorers, Beijing United Publishing Company, June 2022.
1
Feynman is a very unusual person.
As we all know, 28 years ago today, he stood here and gave a speech at the graduation ceremony. And 28 years later, a person who plays him in the play speaks here, perhaps because of the arrangement of heaven, the so-called disordered state-entropy, and what will happen before the universe is about to reach absolute zero ... to tell you why I am here. After reading several books about richard feynman, I took one of them (The Last Journey of Feynman written by Ralph Leiden) and went to the Kyle Tapa Theatre in Los Angeles to meet Gordon Davidson to discuss whether we could arrange a stage play about Feynman. Davidson suggested that Peter parnell write a play, so the three of us embarked on a journey to find the real Feynman. We think we will be able to put the play on the stage in the next year. I didn't expect it to take over six years. We didn't know how difficult it was then. For example, Feynman is a very unusual person.
Stills from the documentary The Magical Mr Feynman (20 13).
Even in the last stage of his life, he knew that his time was running out. He clearly knew the most important questions in physics and had the opportunity to answer them. However, he still does what he is interested in according to his own habits. He spent a lot of time trying to go to Tuva, a small place in Central Asia. Its capital name doesn't even have vowels. Perhaps because of this, Feynman has a great interest in it! However, just as Feynman is difficult to go to Tuva, it is also difficult for us to understand Feynman.
What should we focus on? He participated in the manufacture of the atomic bomb. He helped to find out why the Challenger exploded. He has a deep understanding of the most difficult problems in physics, and thus won the Nobel Prize. Which identity should be emphasized-a respected teacher, a bongo drum performer, an artist, a good joke teller, and an expert in unlocking? We want to make a play about Feynman, but which Feynman is it?
A mathematician friend suggested that the theme of the play should be the sum of all Feynman's experiences, just as he can see all the possible routes when a photon reaches you. Feynman has also taken all possible routes in life-he is the sum of his experiences.
However, nature may be smart enough to average all the paths of photons, but it is impossible for us three dramatists to add up all Feynman's experiences. Once I said, "Do you know what we should do? We should write a story about three people sitting in a hotel room and trying to create a stage play about Feynman. In the end, nothing was fished out, but I drove myself crazy! "
Of course, we didn't give up, but studied him crazily. At Caltech, many people know him, have worked with him and love him. They all welcomed us and opened their hearts to everything. They were very generous and helpful, so we got to know Feynman better. But I often feel that even if I catch him now, he will slip through his fingers later. It's really difficult to condense a complicated life into a few hours on stage.
What I want to show most is his honesty. He never wants to deceive anyone, especially himself. He questioned all his assumptions. When talking about physics with ordinary people without physical background, he never relies on his authority as a great physicist. He thinks that if you can't express something in everyday language, you may not really understand it yourself.
I am most fascinated by this feature of him. He may know more than most of us all our lives, but he insists on explaining everything in our language.
Like Dante in the Middle Ages, he can describe the smallest things in the language of ordinary people. Feynman is an American genius. Like many American artists, his speech is always straightforward and easy to understand. He is not afraid to examine the ordinary, but goes deep into the bottom of the ordinary and reveals the extraordinary roots of ordinary things. At the same time, he doesn't like oversimplification and is not interested in simplifying science. He is interested in clarity.
Stills from the documentary The Magical Mr Feynman (20 13).
If he misses something, he will tell you, so that you can avoid a false impression that does not exist because of oversimplification. After that, even if things get more complicated, you will be prepared. In other words, he respects you. Besides, he has other qualities that fascinate me. One day, while reading a book written by Freeman Dyson, I suddenly remembered a passage about Feynman. "Dick is an original scientist," Dyson wrote. "He refused to take anyone's words as facts or truth. In other words, he must rediscover or create the whole physics himself ... He said that he couldn't understand the official explanation of quantum mechanics in textbooks, so he learned it from scratch ... Finally, he got a version of quantum mechanics that he could understand. " This passage answers some of my doubts. I am no stranger to Feynman's refusal to take anyone's words as facts or truth, and I am no stranger to Feynman's need to read everything in person to understand a thing.
2
People don't like uncertainty, so it's easy to go back to their previous comfort zone.
Ever since I played Feynman, his words have been written on the blackboard behind me: "I can't understand what I can't create." Someone asked why this sentence is so important to the play, because the blackboard on the set almost reproduces the blackboard Feynman left in the office last time before his death. And the sentence "I can't create, I can't understand" is written at the top. But what moved me that day was the sentence "He said he couldn't understand the official explanation of quantum mechanics in textbooks". That's what makes Feynman special. A picture suddenly appeared in my mind: Feynman is experiencing the same situation as us, and he has to face the empty rock wall on the way to climbing. Is it because of this that he can't forget the initial intention of climbing the mountain?
So, perhaps Feynman is widely known not only because he can imagine small particles and their interactions, but also because he remembers the feeling of ignorance and stupidity.
Next, I want to talk about the reasons. How Feynman did it may not matter. Maybe we'll be happy that he can do it and forget about it. But I think it is more important for us to find a way to do it ourselves.
First of all, we live in an era with a lot of tools that can destroy the world, and these tools are in our hands. Humans may be the first species that can do so much harm to the earth. We can stop birds from singing, fish from swimming and insects from falling from trees like black rain. Ironically, everything we do is in the name of reason. We can't live in a culture that doesn't use this ability, because it is this reason that produces this culture.
Stills from the documentary The Magical Mr Feynman (20 13).
But now, many people have given up rationality and turned to hope, fantasy, chanting and incantations, trying to treat themselves with crystals, magnets and herbs of unknown composition. Someone will take out a piece of medicine (the ingredient is a plant leaf of unknown origin) and say, "Take it, it's harmless, it's pure natural ..." The nightshade plant that is deadly enough is also pure natural. Interestingly, they hope that the effective ingredients in plants can play a therapeutic role, and at the same time, they are sure that there are no harmful ingredients in them. How did you know?
I'm not saying this to doubt anyone's faith. Everyone has the right to believe, just as everyone has the right to feel. I only say this to show that today's culture increasingly thinks that science is just another belief. It's better to believe something than to know nothing. People don't like uncertainty, so it's easy to go back to their old comfort zone-no matter how absurd it is.
But Feynman is in no hurry to get rid of ignorance. He likes ignorance. He will explore deeply on the basis of an idea and decide that this idea is the correct answer. But this is only a temporary obsession. The purpose is to follow this idea and see where it can take you. Before long, he began to lash out at the idea to see if it could stand many tests. If he is defeated, he will say that he doesn't know either. "Ignorance," he said, "is much more interesting than believing a possible wrong answer." After you graduate today, in a sense, you are also a descendant of Feynman. Feynman's glorious and brave attitude of accepting uncertainty will be inherited by you. Just as Feynman is a descendant of Newton and Newton is a descendant of Galileo, I hope you are willing to spend more time helping others become your descendants.
I think you are studying at Caltech because you love science and have learned a lot about how to do scientific research. Today, please allow me to take up your precious time and learn how to share my love for science. This explanation will not only bring you more financial support (of course), but also because it is your favorite career. When explaining, remember that dazzling terms may make us daunting, but no one will love them. Tell us your research process honestly and don't hide the twists and turns, because we like detective stories. Not only do you enjoy the adventure in scientific research, but so do we.
Most scientists do hide this. When they heard their great discovery, many questions disappeared, and the mistakes they had made and the detours they had taken were ignored. This doesn't sound like human experience, because it separates the process from the result.
Whatever you do, please help us to love science as much as you do. Just like a young man who is fascinated by his lover, he keeps saying her good things; I like a girl who loves each other deeply, and let everyone know his Excellence through photos and stories. Let's meet the person you love too. Don't just tell us that science is beneficial, so invest; Don't try to convince us that your sweet words have practical significance; Don't put your housekeeping skills on the shelf. Don't be a businessman, don't be an official, don't be a magician, have sex. We have been immersed in modern culture for a long time, and have been able to accurately identify advertisements and know how to turn them off. But love is different. We can't resist
You may be wavering, because some people insist that they are only interested in the practical application of science. You may also be tempted to say only what others want to hear. Twenty-eight years ago, when Feynman stood here, he warned scientists not to exaggerate the magical uses that his research might bring to daily life, especially when it was not clear. He believes that such a bluff is dishonest even for seeking financial support. Although the temptation is great, it is not invincible.
three
Feynman is looking for serious fun, which is his admiration when facing nature.
Robert r Wilson did a good job a few years ago. He is a physicist that Feynman knows very well. He recruited Feynman to join the Los Alamos project. He is also a successful sculptor, and participated in all works of Si Nuo's "Two Cultures" series. Wilson built a giant nuclear particle accelerator for Fermilab in Illinois. But before that, at a congressional hearing held in 1969, he was scolded by Senator John pastore. He wanted to know what the nuclear particle accelerator was for: "Does it help national security?" Wilson replied, "no, sir, I don't think so." "That's useless?" Asked the senator.
Wilson looked at him and said, "It's only related to the way we look at each other, human dignity and love of culture. Is it useful for us to be a great painter, sculptor and poet? What I want to say is that everything that is truly worthy of respect and pride in our country is useful. Can't directly protect national security, just make the country more worthy of protection. Like Wilson, Feynman doesn't need to explain his curiosity about nature-pure science is pure fun. Science is interesting. It's like the story of the plate.
Stills from the documentary The Magical Mr Feynman (20 13).
From the beginning, I was determined that I must write the story of the plate into the play. I think there is a core meaning. Screenwriter Peter parnell changed the manuscript over and over again. I always looked at the manuscript and asked, "What about the story of the plate?" This is driving him crazy.
Some people may not have heard this story. Let me tell it. After World War II, Feynman fell into depression. His first wife just died of tuberculosis, and the devastating consequences of the atomic bomb he helped build are eroding him. When he was teaching at Cornell University, he couldn't concentrate on his work.
One day, Feynman saw a man in the school cafeteria doing nothing and being bored, throwing plates into the air to kill time. Seeing the plate spinning and shaking in the air, the school emblem on it also rotates. He was fascinated at once and thought, "There seems to be a connection between rotation and shaking. What's the connection? " So he began to calculate and found surprisingly simple results from complex equations. He took the results to hans bethe, and Bette said, "It's interesting, Feynman, but what does it mean?" Feynman replied, "Nothing interesting, just fun!" Most importantly, this interesting exploration not only helped him out of the trough, but also brought him the Nobel Prize, according to Feynman.
However, no matter what brought him, Feynman made up his mind in the restaurant that day that he would not study anything that he was not interested in or interested in. Of course, Feynman is looking for serious fun, which is his admiration when facing nature. It is not only a great natural miracle in people's mouth, but also any tiny part of nature, because every tiny part is as magical as the whole.
I want to be interesting. I'm urging you to imitate someone I admit is elusive. Seven years later, I'm standing here, just like Feynman never arrived in Tuva, and I didn't really find Feynman. I am very close to him, but he is really an all-encompassing person with too much experience.
We created a stage play about QED (Quantum Electrodynamics), which was very satisfactory. The script and the director are great. We have tried our best to present Feynman to the audience, and we have achieved the greatest approximation. But we have to admit that a large part of Feynman is beyond our understanding, and perhaps no one can understand him. He always smiles at us where he can't see, because he is complacent about playing tricks on us, which makes people feel that he is an ordinary person and completely understandable. But in fact, as the saying goes, "the process is more valuable than the result", which is true. Because at first, finding Feynman seemed very important, and it might be true, but later it was found that the process of finding Feynman was the fun.
I often feel Feynman looking at me from behind, but he doesn't smile-for example, now. My speech is coming to an end, and I feel the pressure of "one last suggestion". This is the last sentence of Feynman's speech 28 years ago. He said, don't promise to make a speech unless you know exactly what to say and almost know how to say it.
Stills from the documentary The Magical Mr Feynman (20 13).
In other words, what is the core idea? Well, it's time to say something practical. I will make some suggestions, which may be a little naive and unprofessional, but they are very specific, and I will take this as a starting point.
Imagine if everyone explained to a million people what he thought was the best thing in science, no matter how complicated it was, and tried to make them understand. About 500 people attended today's graduation ceremony. Even if only a few people succeed, millions of people will become smarter.
How to do it is entirely up to you. I believe that with your intelligence, you will come up with an excellent plan.
But on the other hand, you might think, "Why? Why should I do such an almost impossible thing? " I don't know, maybe it's the same as birds singing. If this can bring you those benefits that birds get, it is really worth recommending:
1. It is easier to find objects.
2. Singing makes people feel happy.
3. Singing is the sound that nature makes when dancing the dance of life. You are your own universe. When you sing loudly, the vibration of a small muscle behind your throat will resonate somewhere in nature. You become part of the forest and say, "This is what I think I know." The other side of the forest replied, "Really? This is what I think I know! " Your chirping is the harmonious voice of knowledge.
You have learned a lot of natural laws here. What could be more exciting than this? Is there anything more worth singing than this?
So, sing. Sing loudly. Sing!
Thank you and good luck.
Original author/alan alda
Excerpt/Anya
Editor/Liu Yaguang
Proofreading/Liu Jun