Edward Teller - Going to see Einstein give a lecture (31/147)

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  • čas přidán 26. 09. 2017
  • To listen to more of Edward Teller’s stories, go to the playlist: • Edward Teller (Scientist)
    Hungarian-American physicist, Edward Teller (1908-2003), helped to develop the atomic bomb and provided the theoretical framework for the hydrogen bomb. He remained a staunch advocate of nuclear power, calling for the development of advanced thermonuclear weapons. [Listener: John H. Nuckolls]
    TRANSCRIPT: Now, I would like to tell you a few stories about the same period. It was a wonderful period, a period full of new discoveries, full of new, new knowledge. And also full of people who have understood what is going on only in part. I want to tell you one story involving myself. Heisenberg, from time to time, recommended to his students to go up to Berlin, to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, and listen to some iner-interesting talks. And so, on his advice, with all of my 21 or 22 years, I went to listen to a lecture by Einstein, of his later theories in which he explains relativity and electromagnetism with the same ideas. I listened carefully and I understood everything for the first 30 seconds. And after that I understood less and less and less. And when in the end he finished and some of us including Eugene Wigner went to talk- went to walk in the zoological garden, beautiful sunshine, there I was completely desperate. And Eugene, an old friend and a very kind person, comes to me- What's the matter? And I answered him, in Hungarian, in very simple terms. I said- I am so stupid. And now, Wigner basically, very basically, the kindest of all men, should have contradicted me but he didn't. He said- Yes, stupidity is a general human property. Now, you know, the remarkable thing is that, that, that he made me feel much better. That sounded like the truth- All right, I'm stupid; so is everybody else. The point that I did not know then but I know now, that among the people who did not understand what Einstein was saying was Einstein himself. He did wonderful things until 1920, at which time I don't know, he was not yet forty years old, I believe. After that he tried to explain everything and did not succeed.
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Komentáře • 144

  • @skepticalscientist7480
    @skepticalscientist7480 Před rokem +142

    In 1972, or so, I was second-year graduate student of Teller's at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. One afternoon I went to his class only to find a note taped to the door, "Class cancelled. Heisenberg speaking in Berkeley at Physics Auditorium" and the time, which I don't remember - but there was just time to make it. I listened carefully and understood everything for the first 30 seconds, and then less and less. It was a totally crushing experience. Heisenberg's topic was then current pioneering work in what was to become known later as string theory. To hear Dr. Teller tell this story 50 years later is wonderful.

    • @joecambodia1326
      @joecambodia1326 Před rokem

      F Nazi Heisenberg

    • @jeffwads
      @jeffwads Před 10 měsíci +4

      String Theory is pretty much debunked. So you did well not to give it much attention.

    • @kw7807
      @kw7807 Před 9 měsíci +10

      @@jeffwads? Debunked? By what series of experiments?

    • @rafarequeni822
      @rafarequeni822 Před 9 měsíci +3

      @@kw7807By all of them. Physics used to be about making mathematical models to explain certain real-world observations or phenomena. With String Theory, they built a mathematically beautiful model, but they have consistently failed to provide any observation matching the model.

    • @kw7807
      @kw7807 Před 9 měsíci

      @@rafarequeni822 it hasn’t been debunked. It hasn’t been tested. The energy levels are at the Planck length. So it hasn’t been tested as such. So until we can test it, we shouldn’t really believe it until then.

  • @ummwho8279
    @ummwho8279 Před 2 lety +115

    "But even stupid people often make fine scientists. However wonderful a receptive mind may be, it is not central to science. Nor is mental speed. To persist in your inquiry and to engage in it fruitfully-this is what makes a first-rate scientist. Curiosity, diligence, and ambition are traits far more essential than imagination. And stupid people are often remarkably well-endowed with these traits." ~Eugene Wigner
    From "The Recollections of Eugene P. Wigner"

    • @DiederikCA
      @DiederikCA Před 9 měsíci +1

      Oppenheimer did not posses that trait. He jumped from topic to topic making remarkable observations along the way. His mind was never focused, a fact he lamented in his later years (because he was not able to finish a bunch of theories that he started)

  • @marti7343
    @marti7343 Před 9 měsíci +17

    I have a Ph.D. in Statistics. When I was an advanced graduate student I became friends with a brilliant scientist at Bell Labs who also was a statistician. One evening I was at his house and I told him how worried I was because I only understood 20% of what I read. He said, don't worry you get used to not understanding. I worried less after that and learned more.

  • @jacobcastro1885
    @jacobcastro1885 Před 2 lety +66

    I could and have listened to Teller's stories for hours. Feynman too. 👍

    • @ycuy
      @ycuy Před rokem +7

      When my Dad was working as a maintenance man at E.P.R.I. Electric Power Research Institute in California he picked up Dr. Teller at the airport and was bringing him there for a lecture or talk something like that and he asked my Dad what do you think I should talk to them about today and my Dad said well I don't know? Then he wanted to look in his briefcase which was in the very back of the station wagon my Dad was driving. My Dad said I can just pull over and get it for you but he said no that's alright and he climbed over the front seat and the back seat to get his case then climbed back again into the front seat. One of those stories I remember from my Dad I thought I would share.

    • @bobmusil1458
      @bobmusil1458 Před 10 měsíci

      I think Teller was a total dick.

    • @jcriley7695
      @jcriley7695 Před 9 měsíci +1

      @@ycuyTeller says to your dad, “You don’t need to stop, if I can *make Hydrogen Weapons, I can *make it over this seat” LOL Really is a super cool story.

    • @jcriley7695
      @jcriley7695 Před 9 měsíci

      Try these interviews, they’re awesome.
      Hans Bethes interview here is solid , very rigorous mind, excellent at speaking technically, but even more fascinating is he can explain complex things on a scale where anybody can understand, Richard Feynman was the same.
      Freeman Dyson’s interview was a shock to me as he was insanely dynamic, he deeply understood many fields, in fact Hans Bethe even says in his interview that he was surprised at how intelligent he was.

  • @peters972
    @peters972 Před 9 měsíci +6

    Stupidity is a general human property - kind person to Teller (made him feel better, lol) 2:29

  • @DrakeLarson-js9px
    @DrakeLarson-js9px Před 4 měsíci +1

    No better part of my college experience was 'having about 5 one-on-one conversations with Edward Teller' around 1974-5. These videos capture an older Teller exceptionally well - I was part of the 'hydrogen car project' at UCLA. He was less likely to show his explosive tendencies in these later videos, but Freeman Dyson very accurately puts Teller in an accurate 1974 light ... I was exceptionally impressed with Teller - and he was very un-inclined to be overly-cordial in 1974 as the 'hydrogen car project professor' would semi-affectionately refer to Teller as "His Holiness" - That said, Teller was a magnificent mentor!!

  • @colonelkurtz2269
    @colonelkurtz2269 Před 9 měsíci +26

    Albert Einstein made contributions to physics. His brother Frank made a monster.

    • @streamofconsciousness5826
      @streamofconsciousness5826 Před 9 měsíci +3

      Needs a deeper look, that is a amazing coincidence. Look at what Einstein is "the Father" of, I can't think of a bigger monster.
      You may have just broke the simulation. The name Frank is of German origin and means "free".

    • @colonelkurtz2269
      @colonelkurtz2269 Před 9 měsíci +4

      @streamofconsciousness5826 keep thinking, you're definitely on to something

  • @parthgupte4175
    @parthgupte4175 Před 4 lety +74

    "I am very stuupid"
    "Yes it is a general human tendency"
    😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

    • @TheWiseMonkey8888
      @TheWiseMonkey8888 Před 4 lety +3

      2:44 ... love that ...

    • @SoundsSilver
      @SoundsSilver Před 3 lety +7

      Property, not tendency

    • @walterbushell7029
      @walterbushell7029 Před 2 lety +2

      Einstein was tutored by Amalie Emmy Noether[1}, but how many physicists in that time knew tensor calculus, and it is said that his creative period was over when he and his first wife separated.
      [1] Perhaps the foremost mathematician of the 20th century. She proved the equivalence of symmetries in physics with conservation laws. IOW, for every symmetry there is a conservation law and vise versa. It's well worth reading the
      wikipedia article to connect with your intellectual heritage.

    • @C_R_O_M________
      @C_R_O_M________ Před rokem +2

      @@walterbushell7029 she couldn’t hold a candle to mathematician geniuses like Von Neumann.

  • @frednurk6173
    @frednurk6173 Před 9 měsíci +4

    To promote work on the H bomb Teller declared death by radiation would be a euphoric experience.

  • @klepperkamarad
    @klepperkamarad Před 9 měsíci +7

    Happy to say that I got to meet Wigner as a physics grad student in 1982 or 83, when he came to UAF - Geophysical Institute in Alaska.

  • @MrErpolitics
    @MrErpolitics Před 9 měsíci +7

    Einstein was simply a genius with a mind and knowledge beyond the level of others

  • @roberta.6399
    @roberta.6399 Před 8 měsíci

    Such a remarkable man..

  • @David_7171
    @David_7171 Před 10 měsíci +15

    Einstein’s ER and EPR papers as well as Bose-Einstein condensate prediction all came after 1920 though.

    • @rlsfrny
      @rlsfrny Před 10 měsíci +5

      The importance of ER = EPR was not understood in Teller's lifetime.

    • @iuvalclejan
      @iuvalclejan Před 9 měsíci

      @@rlsfrny But the importance of ER and EPR separately WAS well understood.

  • @raginald7mars408
    @raginald7mars408 Před rokem +11

    ... as a German Biologist - it may be the Opposite. When we are young and over enthused - we may construct stuff - that is not in tune with Nature- but it sounds and looks Genius. Later on - we may become more humble and accept - what appears to be Genius - may be juvenile madness. Nature may be so complex - it may be undecipherable for any human. Like any Picture - a poor limited attempt to present something -

    • @callmedeno
      @callmedeno Před 9 měsíci +1

      Sometimes it feels the more I learn in math the more I am learning the constraints of previous thinkers. When you sum them all up over time it could be that you are seeing the problems through the lens of others, the hallway gets smaller and smaller.
      Sure you can make imaginative leaps still, but it seems almost necessarily less likely - 'think before you jump' scenarios; whereas if you are young and have less of this theory in your mind you are more likely to just jump. Obviously you will be stupidly wrong a lot of the time, but then you have more chance of being crazily right, and crazily right seems to get us over giant gaps.

  • @stephenjablonsky1941
    @stephenjablonsky1941 Před 9 měsíci +1

    I really enjoy the fact that physics theory and music theory are similar in that every theorist is right but no one agrees with him.

  • @tlpricescope7772
    @tlpricescope7772 Před 10 měsíci +12

    I love how he pronounced Einstein as “Einstein.”

    • @tlpricescope7772
      @tlpricescope7772 Před 10 měsíci +4

      Einshtein

    • @joem0088
      @joem0088 Před 10 měsíci

      what's the difference ?

    • @gamerjojo4591
      @gamerjojo4591 Před 9 měsíci +2

      @@joem0088 that's how it's pronounced in german

    • @alekzander2010
      @alekzander2010 Před 9 měsíci +2

      ​@@joem0088Hungarians, which Teller was, often pronounce an S in English as an "sh" sound, which is why you also often head Budapest be pronounced as "Budapesht"

  • @MrEolicus
    @MrEolicus Před 10 měsíci +1

    2:53 Fair enough.

  • @jamescoe4765
    @jamescoe4765 Před 9 měsíci +1

    Teller was on staff at UC Davis in 1962.

  • @punypoppy9147
    @punypoppy9147 Před 5 lety +22

    A great story!

    • @dougr.2398
      @dougr.2398 Před 5 lety +2

      Puny Poppy why? Because it is TRUE!

  • @MrKcintx
    @MrKcintx Před 9 měsíci

    At a certain point the most anyone can do is measure the presence of absence, and assume the equation (at that time) that appears to be the most suitable fit.

  • @AdamosDad
    @AdamosDad Před 9 měsíci +1

    “Stupidity should hurt more!” Then we would learn more.

  • @vincentbuonora9416
    @vincentbuonora9416 Před 9 měsíci +1

    Dr.Teller’s right hand gesture must indicate some degree of stress or concentration. The point is that most of us, even the smartest, are not at all competent to understand what we do not know…..

  • @thedouglasw.lippchannel5546
    @thedouglasw.lippchannel5546 Před 9 měsíci +1

    All Physicists should try CIG Theory!

  • @jgonzalesm6
    @jgonzalesm6 Před 9 měsíci +5

    God told Einstein "Don't give them all the possibilities, just enough to get them thinking."

    • @pdutube
      @pdutube Před 9 měsíci

      And Einstein replied, "Is that you Spinoza?"

  • @_artorical_
    @_artorical_ Před 9 měsíci

    Shots fired!

  • @thewilythylacine
    @thewilythylacine Před 9 měsíci +7

    Teller was a fundamentally selfish and evil albeit intellectually brilliant man who would throw anyone under the bus who got in his way or interfered with his ambitions.

    • @jobidden2073
      @jobidden2073 Před 8 měsíci

      Why do you say he was evil?

    • @Butzemann123
      @Butzemann123 Před 7 měsíci +2

      ​@@jobidden2073he watched oppenheimer😂

    • @richinoable
      @richinoable Před 3 měsíci

      cave man style fear uncontaminated by knowledge@@jobidden2073

    • @richinoable
      @richinoable Před 3 měsíci

      eeeeeeviiiil is a concept cave people used to explain the unknown and the scary. there is exactly zero evil, it cannot be quantified, it does not consist of matter made from elements in the periodic table. As a psychological construct, it offers cold comfort to those who quit trying to learn or who feel some kind of existential threat from the realities revealed by quantum mechanics, and probably even classical physics.

  • @enkibumbu
    @enkibumbu Před 9 měsíci +1

    Wow.

  • @donaldsmith3926
    @donaldsmith3926 Před 4 lety +7

    Isn't that the trajectory of folks like that? Well, wait, I'm thinking of exceptions, now, but don't these extraordinary folks lose that intense light after thirty.

    • @vinayseth1114
      @vinayseth1114 Před 4 lety +4

      Nah Einstein himself came up with General Relativity at about 35 years of age. Also, some guy in his 80s got a Nobel in Chemistry very recently and he's still working on new ideas!

    • @vinayseth1114
      @vinayseth1114 Před 4 lety +2

      The guy in his 80s is named Goodenough (funny, I know!)-go look him up!

    • @vinayseth1114
      @vinayseth1114 Před 4 lety

      @Reed Morris Interesting. Who?

    • @vinayseth1114
      @vinayseth1114 Před 4 lety

      @Reed Morris Oh okay. Thanks!

    • @vinayseth1114
      @vinayseth1114 Před 4 lety

      @Reed Morris Thanks! Interesting to know-quite an inspiring journey.

  • @chryslercartography9024
    @chryslercartography9024 Před 9 měsíci +1

    Interesting story about the fallacy of genius.

  • @JIMJAMSC
    @JIMJAMSC Před 5 měsíci

    You don't have to understand something to solve it, get the correct answer, apply it etc. Often times truly understanding something can be a large hinderance. I was a "why? child and it followed me into young adulthood. One day a teacher brought out a capacitor and SMASHED it into dust with a hammer. Stop asking WHY to everything now and just know that it does what it does. The WHY will come to you later. "BTW...The next one cost you $2.25 cents... That one was on me." I "got it" and learning was much easier.

  • @devlogan2030
    @devlogan2030 Před rokem +9

    He looks like Henry Kissinger

  • @georgetirebiter4343
    @georgetirebiter4343 Před 9 měsíci +4

    According to Frank Zappa, it is the most common element in the universe, as opposed to hydrogen.

    • @Xmaslightsallyear
      @Xmaslightsallyear Před 9 měsíci +1

      Zappa. One of the most obnoxiously smug and pretentious narcissists ever to strut and smirk on the earth.

  • @nurlatifahmohdnor8939
    @nurlatifahmohdnor8939 Před rokem +1

    Therefore; British is for Britain people and Breton is for Brittany people of NW France.

  • @umair9456
    @umair9456 Před 10 měsíci +14

    He testified against Oppenheimer.. Villian in history

    • @csibesz07
      @csibesz07 Před 10 měsíci +8

      I guess you came to this conclusion after watching a recent american drama movie?

    • @nlcatter
      @nlcatter Před 10 měsíci +1

      @@csibesz07 no i saw teller 20 years ago, he was evil then

    • @morpher44
      @morpher44 Před 9 měsíci +1

      Unless Oppenheimer wanted out. Who wants the intelligence agencies watching all the time?

    • @shaggyfeng9110
      @shaggyfeng9110 Před 9 měsíci

      Oppenheimer had too many connections with the Communists. The third world war did not happen, but it does not mean it could not. Anyone who has real power and responsibilities knew that Oppenheimer was not fit to have the security clearance, except for the intellects who had no power but big mouths. If Russian did not start the invasion, many intellects in US would still think Communists are not a threat to the world. The only reason people think Teller is a villain, but not Oppenheimer, is simply because US did not have a war with USSR.

    • @kazvanrooij
      @kazvanrooij Před 9 měsíci +2

      ​@csibesz07 id say it more so something else. Teller is portrayed as complex. Good and bad, like everybody.
      Were just so used to showing bad = villain that this lunatic claims Teller is a villain.

  • @achildofgod9954
    @achildofgod9954 Před 3 lety +10

    The way this guy talk reminds me of the Seinfeld “ Pony “ episode .

    • @mithrilsilver575
      @mithrilsilver575 Před 3 lety +6

      "Who figures an immigrant is gonna have a pony?"

    • @tmac8892
      @tmac8892 Před 10 měsíci

      Who wants to leave a country packed with ponies to come to a non pony country!

    • @tlpricescope7772
      @tlpricescope7772 Před 10 měsíci +1

      I get Bella Lugosi/:Ed Wood vibes.

  • @michaelgonzalez9058
    @michaelgonzalez9058 Před 2 lety

    The Omega minus is the equation of product of m SA ss

  • @martinfischer9724
    @martinfischer9724 Před 2 lety +12

    This guy know about alien technology in area 51. He knows it all.

  • @donaldthomson9411
    @donaldthomson9411 Před 9 měsíci +3

    Teller wasn’t a particularly nice guy. He testified against Oppenheimer in a kind of grudge revenge act. Einstein was on a totally different level from Teller intellectually. Its not surprising Einstein couldn’t come up with a unified theory as no one has been able to achieve it since.

  • @atypocrat1779
    @atypocrat1779 Před rokem +1

    🧛‍♂️

  • @walterbushell7029
    @walterbushell7029 Před 2 lety +7

    RE: Human stupidity
    Einstein was tutored by Amalie Emmy Noether[1}, but how many physicists in that time knew tensor calculus, and it is said that his creative period was over when he and his first wife separated.
    [1] Perhaps the foremost mathematician of the 20th century. She proved the equivalence of symmetries in physics with conservation laws. IOW, for every symmetry there is a conservation law and vise versa. It's well worth reading the
    wikipedia article to connect with your intellectual heritage.
    Her contributions were almost lost due to masculine arrogance.

    • @ultimateultimate4115
      @ultimateultimate4115 Před 2 lety +2

      she was amazing but i think Hilbert is probably the most influential mathematician of the 20th century

    • @georgesmelki1
      @georgesmelki1 Před 2 lety +8

      And where did you read that story, may I ask? Can you give your source(s)? As far as I know, it was Marcel Grossmann who helped Einstein with tensor calculus. Emmy Noether never worked with Einstein: in 1915, he was in Berlin and she was in Goettingen...(See,e.g., "Subtle is the Lord..." by Abraham Pais.

    • @C_R_O_M________
      @C_R_O_M________ Před rokem +4

      @@georgesmelki1 This person is trying to prove the “toxic patriarchy” idiocy. It’s a testament to what Teller says in this video. “Stupidity IS a general human property” but some people have a special talent for it! That last part is mine. Imho, Von Neumann was the most capable mathematical mind of the 20th century.

    • @DavidVonR
      @DavidVonR Před rokem

      Einstein praised Noether's work but I don't think he was ever tutored by her.

    • @Native_love
      @Native_love Před 9 měsíci

      Source?

  • @wondereagle
    @wondereagle Před 9 měsíci +3

    A killer of mankind. We are the walking dead thanks to this man.

    • @joemerino3243
      @joemerino3243 Před 9 měsíci +1

      This man's work prevented innumerable horrific deaths in war. Men of immeasurable malice have wrought the world into a place of misery and injustice, don't blame the scientists, whose childlike curiosity about the natural world keeps them grounded in sanity. The politicians, policy experts, and financiers have no such grounding.

  • @mrno.7366
    @mrno.7366 Před 10 měsíci +2

    Another genius Jewish mind

  • @tapaiferenc577
    @tapaiferenc577 Před 9 měsíci

    The plant is growing!Louket the next distance of history! Mayby hamer of flint? Feri.

  • @letitsnow8518
    @letitsnow8518 Před 2 lety +1

    His story might be very interesting, but i do not like the way he told the story.

    • @tariq980
      @tariq980 Před 2 lety +4

      How so?

    • @jacobcastro1885
      @jacobcastro1885 Před 2 lety +6

      It was told in Hungarian, with an English accent. 😁

    • @C_R_O_M________
      @C_R_O_M________ Před rokem +3

      On the contrary I loved the way he expresses. It’s very unique and personal. We get to know more about the man when his uniqueness is expressed.

    • @us-Bahn
      @us-Bahn Před rokem +1

      Teller was the teller of many stories that others did not like

  • @cppdev2729
    @cppdev2729 Před 9 měsíci

    e.teller is an arrogant man in general, also selfish morally

  • @richardthelionheart5594
    @richardthelionheart5594 Před 9 měsíci +2

    Self deprecating? My arse....but he really should be. He lived his whole life the shadow of THE Great Man - "Einshteyn". He's a worm, in comparison.

    • @richardthelionheart5594
      @richardthelionheart5594 Před 9 měsíci

      @@medved3027 medved or Medvedev? What's the difference. You say tomatoes, I say tomatoes. Just means you are a lackey for life. What would a lackey know?!!!!!!

  • @Kumurajiva
    @Kumurajiva Před 9 měsíci +1

    He was awful

  • @nlcatter
    @nlcatter Před 10 měsíci

    saw teller at USAFA< his accent was so bad Hungarian after 50 years in the USA

  • @PITMASTER_RAWDOGGIN
    @PITMASTER_RAWDOGGIN Před rokem

    Tjey told me her was passed on and he gave them to me before that

  • @guarmiron5557
    @guarmiron5557 Před 9 měsíci +3

    Teller was a backstabbing worm of a man who rode other's intellects and then stole the credit. He was without loyalty.