Letters from an Astrophysicist

by Neil deGrasse Tyson

I see two kinds of hope. One of them is religious where one prays or performs some kind of cultural ritual for things to get better. But there is another kind of hope—it’s the challenge of learning about the real world and using our intelligence to change things for the better. In this way, it’s the individual who is empowered to bring hope to the world. So yes, the universe wants to kill us. But on the other hand, we all want to live. So let’s find a way together to deflect the asteroids, find the cure to the next lethal virus, mitigate hurricanes, tsunamis, volcanoes, etc.

Hope

Don’t fear change. Don’t fear failure. The only thing to fear is loss of ambition. But if you’ve got plenty of that, then you have nothing to fear at all.

Dont lose you ambition

Beyond the judgments of others Rising high above the sky Lies the power of ambition

Ambition

book titled Genius Revisited: High IQ Children Grown Up,

Book to read

Pi = 3 and Earth a flat disc is of some historical interest and worthy of study in history class, philosophy class, or religion class. But it has no place in the field of science, whose goal is to find truths of the universe that sit independently of opinion.

Science's goal

The theory of evolution is not something to “believe in.” Science follows evidence. And when strong evidence supports an idea, the concept of belief, when invoked the way religious people use the word, is unnecessary. In other words, established science is not an ensemble of beliefs, it’s a system of ideas supported by verifiable evidence.

Evolution

So I refuse to enter arguments over words. I would rather state what science does, and leave you free to attach whatever words you wish to the enterprise. If we agree on the word, then fine. If we do not agree on the word, the expressed idea remains unaffected.

Semantics

Faith, as the term is commonly used, requires no experimental evidence to hold a belief.

Faith

To base a philosophy on a dictionary distinction between two related words is shaky ground. All too often, modern philosophical arguments are traceable to disagreements in the definitions of words rather than in the analysis of ideas themselves.

Screw dictionaries

My purpose in life is to lessen the suffering of others; advance our understanding of the universe; and enlighten others along the way.

Purpose in life

I lament the loss of useful philosophers that predated modern physics—Immanuel Kant, David Hume, Kurt Gödel, Bertrand Russell, Ernst Mach. Not coincidentally, the transition to uselessness began when our experiments revealed aspects of the universe that no longer followed what anyone would call common sense. The tenets of relativity and quantum mechanics, for example. The day a philosopher’s conversation on the “meaning of meaning” offers useful insight to the next cosmic discovery, I will be happy to revise my views.

On philosophy

think of a professor who faces you from the front of the room; who makes eye contact with the audience; who has invested time and energy thinking about how you think; who pays attention to your attention span; who is aware of what words you know and what words or concepts confuse you; who knows the demographics of the audience—age, gender, nationality, ethnicity, political leanings, cultural leanings, propensity to laugh, to cry; who carries some pop-culture fluency, for easy reference and analogy, but only when teaching the subject can be assisted by such references. That person is not lecturing to you.

On teaching

That’s communicating. It’s a way to see and feel what someone is thinking, allowing you to serve their curiosity on the spot.

On communication.

Scientists never “prove” anything. This word has a specific application in mathematics, but in science what we do is demonstrate, with sufficient experiments, that a consensus exists and further evidence in support of an idea would be a waste of effort or funding since other pressing questions remain unanswered. When such an experimental consensus emerges the results will never one day be shown to be wrong. In the modern era of science (the past 400 years) all that happens is that a bigger truth emerges that enclosed the previous ideas and experiments in a deeper understanding.

On proof

As a minimum, all I ask is that the label “gifted” be changed to “kids who work hard,” so that the club does not come across as exclusive and impenetrable to those outside of it. All the best in your school and career. Neil deGrasse Tyson

Exclusivity

But what’s clear is that we now live in a world where differences of opinion lead to fights rather than conversations.

Conversations

I think we should all work hard to ensure that substance matters more than labels—that’s the society I strive to live in.

Forma y fondo

If you want to write a book, make a film, or engage in a public art project, and if this work makes reference to the natural world, all I ask is that you call your neighborhood scientist and chat about it. When you seek “scientific license” to distort the laws of nature, I would prefer you did so knowing the truth, rather than inventing a storyline that is cloaked in ignorance. You may be surprised to learn that valid science can make fertile additions to your storytelling—whether or not your artistic objective is to destroy the world.

Science vs Movies

it’s not good enough to be right. You also must be effective.

Effective