George Dyson – historian, boat maker, and volunteer Staff Historian at Radiant Earth – returns to discuss Fred Hoyle’s The Black Cloud. We discuss the cultural conflicts that arise between scientists and politicians, the limits of human language, human-incomprehensible modes of communication, the inevitable benefits of creating new observing instruments, alien consciousness, and the perils of simplified science.

Show notes:

• The Black Cloud on Wikipedia
• Fred Hoyle on Wikipedia
• George’s keynote at Radiant Earth’s Expanding and Accelerating Global Climate Data Collaboration workshop on 14 October 2025
• Cause of Cambrian Explosion - Terrestrial or Cosmic? – as mentioned by George, the paper exploring extraterrestrial origins of life on Earth, co-authored by Hoyle’s student and collaborator Chandra Wickramasinghe
• Buy George’s books

Next month will be a discussion of Ted Chiang’s “Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom” with Marta Regn.