Imagined Worlds

Beginning with a rather rambling introduction about his uncle Bruno, his college (Trinity, Oxford) and the need to look to the requirements of the future, Princeton physicist Dyson gradually picks up the pace, providing an engaging work that combines science (""my territory"") and science fiction (""the landscape of my dreams""). Dyson ponders the triumphs and failures of scientists, using real and imagined stories-from the ill-fated Comet jetliner of 1952 to the technological nightmares of H.G. Wells and Huxley-to illustrate the dangers that surface when political ideology and science mix. Politics and economics, argues Dyson, have done much to mar the public image of scientists. Sensitive to the image of scientists as destroyers of life, jobs and the human spirit, he urges the disposal of all nuclear weapons and upbraids his colleagues as ""makers of toys for the rich."" This book is a warning, with Dyson predicting that current ecological battles will intensify, that inequalities between rich and poor (classes and countries) will deepen. But there is also hope, when he predicts that the colonization of space will preserve diversity while it decreases friction (he does, however, include a formal apology to aliens). Mostly this is a reminder that human consequences and human scale must be considered in the application of science and technology. If the tone can be rather gee-whiz, Dyson's use of science fiction to illustrate and evaluate scientific fact is a refreshing and illuminating tool. (Apr.)