6 ms·

Richard Feynman on looking at the world from another point of view (1973)

150 points by shafyy 4y ago

082349872349872 4y ago
is there a transcript somewhere? (I'd ask if one can download .srt's or the equivalent from YT, but their auto-generated subs leave much to be desired)
- shafyy 4y ago
  I've looked and didn't find one, I'm sorry!
- LogicX 4y ago
  Oddly enough there was a different recent submission to HN a few below this for me... here it is: https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=GNhlNSLQAFE&t=1 https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=GNhlNSLQAFE&t=1
  - cratermoon 4y ago
    Yeah, Youtube's built-in transcript system. It's hidden behind the 3 dots at the bottom right of videos
NickRandom 4y ago
I have been in true 'life or death' situations (in other words, I'm alive because others were slower or less able to draw their weapons and fire). In those sorts of situations time truly does slow down. I replay those times endlessly in my dreams/nightmares but either way it seemed like both at the time and in my mental replaying of the events that time slowed down to a crawl. During endless sessions with various mental health professionals it seems that people involved in car crashes have the same slowing down of time. Based on what I've learnt, the time differential boils down to muscle memory (much like a batter hits a fast ball) that can and does initiate a response before the brain processes the event and that the mind catches up afterwards and is able to replay the events in a somewhat coherent way.
- johndhi 4y ago
  Interesting! I have the same experience with the one time a group of teens attempted to mug me. I can remember the sneer on the kid's face as he cocked back and readied to punch me, I was holding textbooks under my right arm, standing 3/4 of the way toward the street on a brick sidewalk at a particular intersection in DC.
  - chubbnix 4y ago
    Well go on, finish the story!
    - tarl0s 4y ago
      I guess that the story is already quite explicit as it is: simply recalling all that amount of details is a clear indicator of how much the time slowed down for the gp during the event.
- foobiekr 4y ago
  My experience with an attempted carjacking is like this. Even now there’s the crystal clear memory an ultra slow tap pause tap of a pistol on the window and the accomplices beelining to the passenger door. Intellectually I know that it all went down in a few seconds but I have no access to a normal speed memory of the event. Only tapppppp delay taaaappp (and then flooring it and nimbly pivoting between accomplice one and two).
  - mordechai9000 4y ago
    Last spring a moose charged me out of nowhere, then followed me through the woods, off trail and in deep snow, and charged me again. Each time I fell on my face in the deep snow and had to pick myself up and try to get behind cover. In my memory, I was moving excruciatingly slow. In reality I think I was moving as fast as I've ever moved in my life. It was almost like I was standing outside myself, observing and telling myself what to do.
  - quacked 4y ago
xqcgrek2 4y ago
What point of view was he looking at when he abused people? https://slate.com/technology/2019/01/richard-feynman-physical-abuse-science-wife-fbi.html https://slate.com/technology/2019/01/richard-feynman-physica... https://thebaffler.com/outbursts/surely-youre-a-creep-mr-feynman-mcneill https://thebaffler.com/outbursts/surely-youre-a-creep-mr-fey... https://caltechletters.org/viewpoints/feynman-harassment-science https://caltechletters.org/viewpoints/feynman-harassment-sci...
- labrador 4y ago
  "To Err is Human, to forgive divine" - Alexander Pope I'm going to assume that none of Richard Feynman's mistakes affected you personally, so you have no reason to take it personally and judge or be offended. Let's imagine that the women involved forgave him. Where does that leave you? Cancelling him in his future and missing out on his best ideas.
  - aiwv 4y ago
    Forgiveness doesn't mean that certain behavior was ok. Feynman was a very complicated figure. I find the stories he wrote about going to the strip club in Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman quite disturbing. He quite explicitly dehumanizes the women who work at the club when he realizes that buying them a few drinks isn't enough for sex. He was in his 60s when he published that book. I know that times were different then, but it was rotten when it was published and hasn't aged well. I expect better from someone with his intellectual prowess. I also find that whenever I read Feynman or watch one of his lectures, it always seems as though the real subject is Feynman himself. In spite of his humble everyman from Brooklyn persona, he always seems intent on reminding you that he is smarter than you are. He always seems to know better than all the idiots out there. I find it very off-putting. At the same time, I can respect his contributions to physics and his personal genius. He was also clever and quite charismatic. But I wouldn't give my children a copy of Surely you're joking...
    - labrador 4y ago
      > He quite explicitly dehumanizes the women who work at the club when he realizes that buying them a few drinks isn't enough for sex. You fault him for not knowing "there's no sex in the Champaign room" > I expect better from someone with his intellectual prowess. I recommend that you don't look into the sex lives of famous and admirable thinkers through out history. > He always seems to know better than all the idiots out there. He's a working class guy as am I. This is an essential conceit and source of humor for many of us. We take pleasure in out-smarting the our so-called superiors.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
m3047 4y ago
When I replay hitting a deer on a motorcycle at 60+mph I was already flying through the air when I grabbed a handful of brake: this is not the 4D (3D + time) reality of the unfolding of events, but it is how I see it. It tells me something about how we see the world, and how we're wired. (Wasn't my first slide, being able to walk wasn't entirely luck. Being able to ride away was.)
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
quacked 4y ago
I noticed something weird once about time perception. I kept thinking I was getting texts at work, because I'd suddenly become aware of my lit-up phone screen out of the corner of my eye. But then I'd go to pick it up and it was off, with no text. What I realized after a while of this is (assuming I didn't have a unique software bug) that the phone must have been lit up the entire time and was then turning off, but my real-time perception was actually a fraction of a second behind reality. So my brain would notice a state change on the screen and "play a memory" of the phone being suddenly lit up, which I experienced as real-time perception.
thordenmark 4y ago
In stressful situations my mind enters a calm place knowing that panic would be the worst thing to do at that moment. The only time this was not true was when my wife went into labor with our first child and I had to drive her to the hospital. At one moment she said "I feel like pushing, hurry" and that is the only time in my life I felt genuine panic start to take over. I was shaking, but kept cool enough to drive safely. I haven't felt that panic since, I was totally calm with our next child!

150 points by shafyy 4y ago

is there a transcript somewhere? (I'd ask if one can download .srt's or the equivalent from YT, but their auto-generated subs leave much to be desired)

shafyy 4y ago
I've looked and didn't find one, I'm sorry!
LogicX 4y ago
Oddly enough there was a different recent submission to HN a few below this for me... here it is: https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=GNhlNSLQAFE&t=1 https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=GNhlNSLQAFE&t=1
- cratermoon 4y ago
  Yeah, Youtube's built-in transcript system. It's hidden behind the 3 dots at the bottom right of videos

NickRandom 4y ago

I have been in true 'life or death' situations (in other words, I'm alive because others were slower or less able to draw their weapons and fire). In those sorts of situations time truly does slow down. I replay those times endlessly in my dreams/nightmares but either way it seemed like both at the time and in my mental replaying of the events that time slowed down to a crawl. During endless sessions with various mental health professionals it seems that people involved in car crashes have the same slowing down of time. Based on what I've learnt, the time differential boils down to muscle memory (much like a batter hits a fast ball) that can and does initiate a response before the brain processes the event and that the mind catches up afterwards and is able to replay the events in a somewhat coherent way.

johndhi 4y ago
Interesting! I have the same experience with the one time a group of teens attempted to mug me. I can remember the sneer on the kid's face as he cocked back and readied to punch me, I was holding textbooks under my right arm, standing 3/4 of the way toward the street on a brick sidewalk at a particular intersection in DC.
- chubbnix 4y ago
  Well go on, finish the story!
  - tarl0s 4y ago
    I guess that the story is already quite explicit as it is: simply recalling all that amount of details is a clear indicator of how much the time slowed down for the gp during the event.
foobiekr 4y ago
My experience with an attempted carjacking is like this. Even now there’s the crystal clear memory an ultra slow tap pause tap of a pistol on the window and the accomplices beelining to the passenger door. Intellectually I know that it all went down in a few seconds but I have no access to a normal speed memory of the event. Only tapppppp delay taaaappp (and then flooring it and nimbly pivoting between accomplice one and two).
- mordechai9000 4y ago
  Last spring a moose charged me out of nowhere, then followed me through the woods, off trail and in deep snow, and charged me again. Each time I fell on my face in the deep snow and had to pick myself up and try to get behind cover. In my memory, I was moving excruciatingly slow. In reality I think I was moving as fast as I've ever moved in my life. It was almost like I was standing outside myself, observing and telling myself what to do.
- quacked 4y ago

xqcgrek2 4y ago

What point of view was he looking at when he abused people? https://slate.com/technology/2019/01/richard-feynman-physical-abuse-science-wife-fbi.html https://slate.com/technology/2019/01/richard-feynman-physica... https://thebaffler.com/outbursts/surely-youre-a-creep-mr-feynman-mcneill https://thebaffler.com/outbursts/surely-youre-a-creep-mr-fey... https://caltechletters.org/viewpoints/feynman-harassment-science https://caltechletters.org/viewpoints/feynman-harassment-sci...

labrador 4y ago
"To Err is Human, to forgive divine" - Alexander Pope I'm going to assume that none of Richard Feynman's mistakes affected you personally, so you have no reason to take it personally and judge or be offended. Let's imagine that the women involved forgave him. Where does that leave you? Cancelling him in his future and missing out on his best ideas.
- aiwv 4y ago
  Forgiveness doesn't mean that certain behavior was ok. Feynman was a very complicated figure. I find the stories he wrote about going to the strip club in Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman quite disturbing. He quite explicitly dehumanizes the women who work at the club when he realizes that buying them a few drinks isn't enough for sex. He was in his 60s when he published that book. I know that times were different then, but it was rotten when it was published and hasn't aged well. I expect better from someone with his intellectual prowess. I also find that whenever I read Feynman or watch one of his lectures, it always seems as though the real subject is Feynman himself. In spite of his humble everyman from Brooklyn persona, he always seems intent on reminding you that he is smarter than you are. He always seems to know better than all the idiots out there. I find it very off-putting. At the same time, I can respect his contributions to physics and his personal genius. He was also clever and quite charismatic. But I wouldn't give my children a copy of Surely you're joking...
  - labrador 4y ago
    > He quite explicitly dehumanizes the women who work at the club when he realizes that buying them a few drinks isn't enough for sex. You fault him for not knowing "there's no sex in the Champaign room" > I expect better from someone with his intellectual prowess. I recommend that you don't look into the sex lives of famous and admirable thinkers through out history. > He always seems to know better than all the idiots out there. He's a working class guy as am I. This is an essential conceit and source of humor for many of us. We take pleasure in out-smarting the our so-called superiors.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

m3047 4y ago

When I replay hitting a deer on a motorcycle at 60+mph I was already flying through the air when I grabbed a handful of brake: this is not the 4D (3D + time) reality of the unfolding of events, but it is how I see it. It tells me something about how we see the world, and how we're wired. (Wasn't my first slide, being able to walk wasn't entirely luck. Being able to ride away was.)

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

quacked 4y ago

I noticed something weird once about time perception. I kept thinking I was getting texts at work, because I'd suddenly become aware of my lit-up phone screen out of the corner of my eye. But then I'd go to pick it up and it was off, with no text. What I realized after a while of this is (assuming I didn't have a unique software bug) that the phone must have been lit up the entire time and was then turning off, but my real-time perception was actually a fraction of a second behind reality. So my brain would notice a state change on the screen and "play a memory" of the phone being suddenly lit up, which I experienced as real-time perception.

thordenmark 4y ago

In stressful situations my mind enters a calm place knowing that panic would be the worst thing to do at that moment. The only time this was not true was when my wife went into labor with our first child and I had to drive her to the hospital. At one moment she said "I feel like pushing, hurry" and that is the only time in my life I felt genuine panic start to take over. I was shaking, but kept cool enough to drive safely. I haven't felt that panic since, I was totally calm with our next child!