Monday, March 11, 2013

Book Review: Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!

Powell's Books
Barnes & Noble
Richard Feynman - © 1985

A fascinating foray into the fun yet formidable physics of Mr. Feynman. Actually, this book is less about physics and more about the life of Nobel Prize Laureate, Richard Feynman. (Richard just rolled over in his grave; if you want to know why -- read this book!) Once I adjusted my expectations from education to entertainment, I absorbed every word. He was always interesting, at times very entertaining and despite his obvious genius he had an utter lack of pretentiousness and conceit that I previously assumed afflicted all venerated scientists. I closed this book wishing for more and feeling inspired to pursue my own adventures in curiosity. What could I achieve if, like Richard, I abandoned my Western culture imperative of accomplishment through suffering and played with my talents in ways I felt was fun?

Richard Feynman’s world was driven by curiosity, which in turn developed his enviable intellectual toolbox that unlocked the mysteries of the natural world to which it was applied. It might be unlocking the energy of plutonium for the Manhattan Project or perhaps the secrets of ant trails, or maybe, just for fun, he’d decipher a Mayan codex while his wife trudged up and down pyramids in the hot Mexican sun. Whatever it was, through his careful application of the scientific method and patience, locks opened for him and revealed their wares. His interests also extended beyond science.  Not surprisingly, he became something of a safe cracker.. again, just for fun. He learned to draw so that he could render the beauty of physics in pieces of art. (And apparently the naked female form, for fun.) He wanted to learn a language so he did so he learned Spanish, then converted it to Portuguese so he could spend time in teaching in Brazil. He like drumming, so he did; sometimes half naked --in the forest --alone --at night. In all things that captured his interest, including the romancing the ladies, Richard dove in with his energy and intellect and consistently “worked very hard” to get what he wanted. And he usually did.

Richard was rare among scientists in that his ego came secondary to the science and fun he was having doing it. He refused to become part of the social elite and followed his curiosity wherever it would take him. Except to LSD, although very curious about hallucinations he declined for fear he would “hurt the machine.” Luckily he came to know people who were developing a sensory deprivation tank and was able to experience hallucinations. But then again, who doesn’t? Pssht.


What I Took From This Book

Just For Fun!
In our Western culture there is an almost subliminal idea that we aren’t making valuable contributions or working hard enough unless we are suffering to some degree. It simply doesn’t work that way, we do our best work, our most valuable work, while having fun. I think it’s the only way to do great things. If you’re suffering, you will probably only do just enough to finish the job. If you’re very disciplined, you can probably even do a good job, but your unique potential will forever remain undiscovered because you’re not having enough fun to keep yourself interested. After the Manhattan project Richard feared he was burnt out on physics and his ideas were spent. Then he resolved to “play with physics, whenever I want to, without worrying about any importance whatsoever.” The works that earned him a Nobel Prize “... came from piddling around with the wobbling plate.”

When I follow an idea that I find amusing, I find it easy to get into a state of flow, where I lose track of time and consciousness of my surroundings and produce my best work. When I am suffering in my work is driven by force of will and the result is stunted, unimaginative and lacking in curiosity, imagination and love. The clock ticks forward and ticks backward. Learning and life are supposed to be fun, that way we’ll keep doing it. Exceptional work is what we do while we’re having fun.

Learning By Rote
During Richard’s time teaching in Brazil he was horrified to discover that although his students were bright they understood nothing of what they were taught. Prior to his arrival, the students had the textbook memorized but could relate nothing of the physics they were learning to the natural world. For example, after discussing a section on polarized light that the students knew cold, he gave them some polaroid paper and talked about figuring out which way the light was polarized by using light reflected from the bay outside. The students were lost.

He discovered the textbooks did not encourage any real world experimentation. Sixty some years later, we’re not in much better shape. I learned most of my higher math in a similar fashion, I knew that the calculus I was learning could be applied to tell me how much material needed to fill a three dimensional space with a curve. I should be able to calculate the area under a curve or the max/mins of different story problem like setups. But, I couldn’t. I couldn’t do the math unless it was laid out like all the other equations I had previously solved in my math book. If it was slightly different, or I had to set up the equation from scratch, I was (am) lost. It didn’t matter, I still got my A and passed the course. I knew it was happening at the time and oh-welled it. Now a decade later after getting my degree, it’s all lost. Had I understood the concepts and could apply them, I probably could work back into it pretty easily. Now if I want to go back for my bachelor’s degree, I’ll have to re-do all my math credits and memorize it all over again. *shiver*

Don’t Trust the Experts
Experts are only experts because no-one has proved them wrong... yet. Although it sometimes doesn’t seem that way, science is still in its infancy. The more I learn, the more I realize how little we actually know about, well, everything.

After unknowingly using faulty data from prior experts in his experiments, Richard resolved to always redo the math himself ensuring the integrity of the experiments and verifying all the data he was going to use in the experiment he actually wanted to perform. I remember doing poorly on an physics exam in high school because the answer from the first question was used in the next and so on. My answer for number 1 was wrong and therefore snowballed and ruined my entire exam. Always go back to beginning, verify the work was done (sometimes even if it is your own) to your standards before getting rolling on your new work. Otherwise you may find yourself building a dream home on a rotten foundation.

Integrity
In our world the results of scientific studies so often coincide with the interest group funding the study. Richard believed in giving all the information related to an experiment, those results that had positive, negative and benign ramifications. The activity is irrelevant, whether it be writing, manufacturing, engineering whatever, integrity is crucial to advancing our culture towards better, healthier futures, but unfortunately it is deemed a luxury rather than a basic right. The last paragraph says it the best: “So I have just one wish for you --the good luck to be somewhere where you are free to maintain the kind of integrity I have described, and where you do not feel forced by a need to maintain your position in the organization, or financial support, or so on, to lose your integrity. May you always have that freedom.” Indeed.

This book was based on a compilation of taped interviews with Richard, which after a while gave me the feeling I was sitting opposite him on a sofa sipping a drink; just reminiscing with a friend. Richard Feynman was not only a gifted scientist but incredibly interesting and down to earth, the only physicist that I could ever imagine hanging out with --for fun.  Although, I think I'd insist on paying for my own drink.


Ofey Art
See some of Richard's art at the Museum Syndicate website.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Reflections of Opa Day

Opa - Taken by Danielle
Opa Day occurs once a week, usually on a Thursday, and is so named because that is the day Danielle and Gabrielle’s Opa comes to visit. Opa Day is an invariably pleasant day for our family. He arrives around 11am and is often greeted with running hugs from my girls and shouts of Opa! Opa! A handshake yields a treat and so begins Opa Day.

The beginnings of Opa Day can be traced back five years to the dawn of a new age in our lives. I peeked out from my Web Development cave blinking in the bright sun, straightened up my bent spine and headed out into the new world of being a parent. After my maternity leave was spent, I tried to head back to my cave leaving my light to be cared for by my father-in-law for three days a week and on those remaining two days of the work week I would magically divide myself in two and perform both tasks simultaneously by engaging in the phenomenon known as, “working from home”. After five months of trying in vain to will mitosis to work on a grander scale, I left my pleasant professional life behind to embark on the adventure of full-time parenthood.

During the time of my failed mitosis experiment, Danielle and her Opa formed a wonderful bond. He sang her German songs, played wonderfully imaginative games and achieved a success with naps that I was never able to duplicate. Unwilling to let time erode that special connection, we decided to set aside one day a week where he would visit.

We have a wonderful routine for Opa Day that starts with a visit and Opa Day lunch of fried eggs, toast and fresh fruit. Sometimes Opa’s toast transforms into “Mr. Toast Man” who speaks in a gruff voice and elicits laughs from Danielle. Then Danielle, Gabi and Opa play one of the many original games such as, Find the Horses, (or puppies) Barbie Horse Hunting Game, Say Hi to Mr. Ceiling or maybe they’ll just build a tower of toys to the ceiling, or he might play guitar and sing while Danielle requests a sad, sad song. Then as the day continues they might head out for a walk to Costco, where over the years Danielle and Opa have achieved celebrity status. After sampling the samples, and watching the tire guys work, they might share a root beer and a pizza slice or a hot dog, and an ice cream treat. Then if the weather is cooperating they’ll walk to the nearby park where Danielle picks flowers as they head over to the ponds to pay a visit to Harold and Maud, a resident pair of white ducks. Then they might make their way down to the echo tunnel where vocal cords are exercised and eardrums tested. After the park has been thoroughly explored, they head home to a rested set of parents who have fetched some dinner from New Season’s Market. After a family visit, Opa is sent home with hugs and he gives treat bearing handshakes to calls of “Gute reise!” and “Bis später!”

When Danielle was about two, during our dinner time visit Opa would often remark how Danielle would insist he buy a hot dog at Costco, but then she didn’t want any when the hot dog arrived. She’d only nibble the bun a bit and drink some of the root beer, leaving Opa to eat the entire oversized hot dog himself. Later, Danielle and I were at Costco and she pointed at the deli and said, “Hot dog! Hot dog!” I explained that we weren't there for lunch today, then she points at a drink cup and exclaims, “Hot dog!” Oohhhhh! She thought root beer was called hot dog! Since they always arrived as a pair, she never knew which was which. As we walked she was greeted by several people I’ve never met with, “Hi, Danielle!”

But alas the era of Opa Day is coming to a close. With the construction of the addition to their beach cabin and the imminent retirement of Oma in late Spring, they will soon be permanent residents of the village of Oysterville. A wonderful place to retire, no doubt. But we will all miss our pleasant Thursdays and the breakup of our week. It gave us all a much needed breather from each other; a chance for me to take a walk and exhale my anxieties and frustrations and inhale peace of mind.  It gave my girls a chance to play in ways I would never have thought of, enriching their development and taught them that they were safe with people other than mom and dad. I rarely get a chance to miss my kids and experience the joy of seeing them again, which is a feeling that always reminds me know how much I love them. I’ll miss our interesting conversations. I’ll miss getting my husband all to myself at a time when we’re not too tired to talk.

However much I will miss this time, I also know that there are many wonderful times to come. We will be able to visit Oysterville, a place my family loves above all others, and arrive to warm walls, warm hugs and warm company. During their visits to Portland, not only will my girls get to play with Opa but now they will also be privileged to bask in the warmth of Oma’s attention as well.

Things will not be the same, but the love will be.



So many times as we said our good-byes, we'd thank Opa for coming and spending the day with us and he'd reply, "I just want to help out, not sure how much help I am."

In the moment I could never find the right words, the feelings are too abstract for my inadequate vocabulary, but simply put, "Yes, indeed you do."

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Book Review: Spinward Fringe Broadcast 0: Origins

Powell's Books
B&N Nook Book Free!
Randolf Lalonde - © 2010

Synopsis
Jonas Valent is an underachieving video gamer who illegally hacked into military training simulations and unknowingly whooped their best teams. His crew is found out and recruited to become the crew of an elite shadow ship for their home in remote space called, Freeground Station. They’re given a fully refit 400 year old ship with the mission to go out into the universe and collect new technology for Freeground. Cool.

Review
Sci-fi has never been my genre of choice, perhaps because I’m a bit claustrophobic and the idea of being confined to a ship for years and possibly dying the the frozen vacuum of space is a bit, well, awful. However I appreciate how writers of sci-fi stories can be wonderfully imaginative. Free from the limitations of current technologies and geography, writers can pluck choice apples of theoretical physics and bake them into their stories. The pie comes out warm with super sweet gadgets and chewy with fun cosmological science stuff. I love it when authors invent new social and societal structures that are recognizable vectors of current society, with cool original ideas for connecting people across the vastness of space. But regardless of the genre, it is good solid characters, their interactions and personal growth that makes or breaks the story for me.

And that’s what broke the story for me. With the exception of the character, Oz, I never had any feeling (like nor dislike) for the characters. I had trouble remembering their names, they were just flat, one dimensional things. The author, Randolf LaLonde belabored their development with long discussions that were intended to reveal character depth but in the end just detracted from the story and slowed things down. I kept thinking that a discussion or meeting was somehow important foreshadowing for future events. I would mentally catalog ideas but they never turned into anything. Arg! Perhaps one of the inherent limitations of writing in the first person is that you can only see everyone through the window of one dull character’s eyes. When I mentioned this to my husband, he said, “If he’s really good with the technical stuff he’s probably not that great with people.” Of course! Had Randolf known his strengths better he would have devoted that energy to the plot and technical aspects of the story.  I wouldn't have cared about the characters, they’d just be props in an amazingly interesting story.

What Mr. Lalonde did well was the application of theoretical physics into the machinery of the story. Their ship is composed of metal that will regenerate itself when damaged, it has inertial dampeners to soften the blow of impacts, they capture a power source that derives energy from a singularity (an itty bitty big bang). They also capture a particle accelerator, and put it to use making antimatter for weapons. The ship can generate worm holes for fast fun travel experiences. Need something? Just go to a handy materializer station. Drop in your garbage, program in what you want, a sandwich say, and it’ll re-scramble the atoms into a hot turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy. Cool. And that’s just the ship.

The idea that they’re on a “shadow ship” out capturing technology for their home station, Freeground is fun too. The evil corporations are also fun to see operate on a galactic scale. I love how corporate technology is cutting edge (in their time) but mass produced and cheap (like in our time). I liked all the creativity that went into how the disparate governments and corporations and the inevitable politics therein work on a grand galactic scale. *Breathe* He did a great job revealing all of this in small digestible pieces, that you eat up and ask for more. And then the characters start talking again...