Just Imagine Our Civilization Reduced to Three Books...

Richard Feynman (1918 - 1988)

Richard Feynman was one of the greatest scientists of the 20th Century. He was a physicist whose prankish sense of humor and ability to see into things--and express them in his own unique ways--have made him the hero of millions of "geeks", scientists, intellectuals, and people who enjoy intelligent humor.

Here is a Youtube excerpt from a lecture he gave in which he was sidetracked by his outrage at the destruction of the Mayan civilization. "They had hundreds of thousands of books. And there's three left....Just imagine our civilization reduced to three books. The particular ones left by accident...."

Richard Feynman was an endlessly fascinating character. A number of popular books have been written about him, and you will find that the more you learn, the more he appeals, as an intellect, a prankster, and as a human being. A great place to start is the anecdotal biography, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, which is delightful. There is a BBC biography that is quite good, too, entitled Richard Feynman--No Ordinary Genius.

A wonderful biography of Feynman was done for Nova, called "The Quest for Tannu Tuva". The biography gives a feel for the delight that Feynman instills as we learn about him or watch videos of him. One of his preoccupations late in his life before his death from cancer was the wish to visit the Cental Asian republic of Tuva. It had become for him the embodiment of the unknown and exotic, an exciting place to explore and experience. Among the most exotic aspects of Tuvan culture is their extraordinary music, known as "Tuvan throat singing". Tuvan throat singing can be heard in some YouTube videos. This is one. And here is another. The technique known as "throat singing" is also referred to more accurately as "overtone singing", and is also practised by other Central Asian cultures (Mongolian, Tibetan) and in avant garde Western performance. (When I was in college, I had a music professor who was a wonderful composer. He used to arrange festivals of experimental music that at times showcased techniques such as overtone singing and circular breathing. This was thirty years ago, before Richard Feynman's interest in Tuvan culture became known and thereby greatly increased the notoriety of Tuvan throat singing, which I still find surprising and beautiful.)

The world has so much more to delight and enrich and teach us than the old superstitions and other forms of hate-filled prejudice allow. Those superstitions destroyed the Mayan civilization and nowadays are frothing to destroy the science and human advancement that people like Richard Feynman have given us in our time. Feynman found wonder and delight in the lost culture of the Maya, the little-known hidden culture and geography of Tuva, and in the workings of the Universe itself. So should we all. Tuva or bust!