My, how the world has changed since I last posted a note here!
Recently I was alerted to a podcast called “The Dead Scientists”. The first 57 episodes feature intriguing summaries of The Feynman Lectures on Physics. Subsequent episodes feature Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein — or is it “Einsteim”? (See image below — the more I look at it, the more strange things I see.)
I am impressed — and perplexed. The series was created with AI — and it appears that no human checked the final product. It features a chatty conversation between a male and female voice (extraneous voices sometimes intrude), and usually does a commendable job of summarizing each lecture that it covers. The conversation also brings in interesting analogies and related topics, some of them contemporary, that sustain one’s interest. But then, out of the blue, embarrassing errors pop up that any human with a passing knowledge of the material would catch. A qualified editor could eliminate such bloopers.
One example: the lecture on harmonics (October 12 2024) features Pythagoras’ discovery that simple ratios create pleasing sounds. But the voices say an octave is a ratio of “two-point-one”, misreading 2:1 (“two-to-one”). This misreading undermines the key concept of rational fractions creating pleasant harmonies.
I suspect we’re on the precipice of what one might uncharitably call the bastardization of Feynman’s work. I can only hope that people will search out Feynman’s actual works and interviews so they can appreciate the man uncut and intact.
I’ve discovered a link to some videos that show the real Richard Feynman, so check it out.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLISEtDmihMo2iO8CFRZ77Hx4Jf4rAyWmM
My thanks to the curator of the collection!
