from Hacker News

Collection of Richard Feynman talks on the scientific method, learning, and CS

by skotzko on 2/29/12, 5:57 PM with 20 comments

• by Arjuna on 2/29/12, 9:12 PM

  If you are interested in physics and have not seen Dr. Feynman's 7-part lecture series entitled The Character of Physical Law, you really owe it to yourself to watch them in their entirety [1]. The site's interface has some neat features, such as links into the transcript and notes related to the topic being discussed.

  Dr. Feynman delivered these lectures as part of the "Messenger Lectures" [2] series at Cornell University in 1964:

  Lecture 1: Law of Gravitation - An Example of Physical Law

  Lecture 2: The Relation of Mathematics and Physics

  Lecture 3: The Great Conservation Principles

  Lecture 4: Symmetry in Physical Law

  Lecture 5: The Distinction of Past and Future

  Lecture 6: Probability and Uncertainty - The Quantum Mechanical View of Nature

  Lecture 7: Seeking New Laws

  [1] Requires SilverLight: http://research.microsoft.com/apps/tools/tuva/index.html

  [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messenger_Lectures

• by Nadacambia on 3/1/12, 3:49 AM

  http://xkcd.com/182/ (Maybe someday science will get over its giant collective crush on Richard Feynman. But I doubt it!)

  Stephen Wolfram on Richard Feynman : http://www.stephenwolfram.com/publications/recent/feynman/

  A famous letter Feynman sent to Wolfram : http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/06/you-dont-understand-ord...

• by why-el on 2/29/12, 9:11 PM

  His answer on why he does not believe in Computer Science is pretty convincing. What I would love to have happened is a professor telling me that what I am going to be learning is not exactly science. Nobody did, so I spent a couple of years trying to scientify things.

• by imaginaryunit on 2/29/12, 8:04 PM

  Feynman's view on CS is similar by Hal Abelson's take on the term (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQLUPjefuWA). Abelson's point about CS being more like magic has always stuck with me.

• by packetslave on 3/1/12, 12:32 AM

  I still enjoy reading Danny Hillis's story of Feynman's days working at Thinking Machines, whenever I happen to run across it.

  http://longnow.org/essays/richard-feynman-connection-machine...

• by rgower on 2/29/12, 11:54 PM

  Don't forget The Feynman Series http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRmbwczTC6E

• by EREFUNDO on 2/29/12, 8:08 PM

  "If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics."

• by 27182818284 on 2/29/12, 10:52 PM

  I'm so terribly bored by the same Feynman lectures reposted again and again to either YC, Facebook, or Reddit. Do a search and they come up again and again.

  I wish there were more lectures by others spread around. Say John Bardeen, for example.