Introduction
introduction: ALBERT EINSTEIN:
THE WORLD’S FAVORITE
GENIUS
ALBERT EINSTEIN REMAINS the world’s favorite genius, propelled to fame by popular adulation of his revolutionary scientific theories about space and time. Today, a century after the confirmation of his theory of general relativity in November 1919, Einstein remains a cult figure. He has appeared on the cover of Time magazine no fewer than six times and was lionized as its Person of the Century in 1999. His equation E = mc2 has become the best-known scientific formula of all time and has regularly —along with Einstein’s trademark hairstyle —found its way onto T-shirts and billboards.
Photographers loved Einstein. One of the best-known photos of him is Arthur Sasse’s shot of Einstein sticking out his tongue. This iconic photograph was taken right at the end of his birthday party in 1951 at Princeton, as a weary Einstein entered his chauffeured automobile to be driven home. Sasse, who had been covering the event, ran up to the open door and asked Einstein for one final shot. Einstein turned toward him and stuck out his tongue just as Sasse’s flashbulb went off. Einstein liked the resulting photo so much that he used it for greeting cards he sent to his friends.
Einstein’s ideas have changed the way we think and live. Without realizing it, we depend on his theory of relativity when using a Global Positioning System (GPS). The light and warmth of the sun are the direct result of the conversion of mass to energy —the process Einstein first recognized in 1905 and expressed in his equation E = mc2. This same principle lies behind nuclear power generators —and atomic bombs. Einstein triggered America’s race to build the atomic bomb in 1939 with a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, warning him that Nazi Germany would get there first unless the United States committed itself to developing the necessary technology. (A copy of this typewritten letter was sold at Christie’s in New York for $2.1 million in 2008.)
The immense esteem in which Einstein was held by the academic and popular-science community meant that when he talked about larger questions, people were prepared to listen. When his theory of general relativity was triumphantly confirmed in November 1919, he became a media sensation. His 1921 tour of America was front-page news.
Yet Einstein did not simply speak about science. He opened up grander issues of human value and meaning —what the philosopher Karl Popper later called “ultimate questions.” People listened to Einstein with attentiveness and respect. He became a celebrity genius, an intellect of colossal status, who managed to achieve iconic cultural status without dumbing down what he said.
Einstein doesn’t fit the stuffy stereotype of a scientific genius. On a visit to California, he struck up a surprising friendship with the movie star Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin invited Einstein to attend the premiere of his 1931 movie City Lights. The huge crowd went wild as Einstein and Chaplin arrived together. According to a popular legend, Chaplin told Einstein, “They’re cheering you because nobody understands you, and me because everybody understands me.” Although Einstein was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics, his greatest achievement was arguably to become admired, even adored, by the wider public. Many sensed that although Einstein was difficult to understand, he had grasped something profound about our universe that others had failed to find. He was worth listening to —even if doing so was difficult and demanding.
This short book sets out to explain in simple and accessible terms Einstein’s revolutionary scientific ideas, which still shape our world today, and to explore their significance. Nobody thinks a scientific genius is infallible. Still, Einstein’s status means he is profoundly worth listening to, especially when thinking about how we make sense of our universe.
Yet this book goes further —as, I believe, Einstein would wish us to do. It takes seriously Einstein’s fascination with a “big picture” of our world and ourselves. It considers how Einstein personally wove together science, ethics, and religious faith to yield a richer account of reality —if you like, a theory of everything that matters. So how did he do this? What were the outcomes? What remains valuable for us today? Lots of people have written about Einstein’s wider vision of life, stimulating and informing our discussion. So why not make Einstein our dialogue partner? After all, he was a genius.
Finally, a word of caution. Many sayings attributed to Einstein have no connection with him whatsoever. Here’s one that is regularly attributed to Einstein, which I first came across on a T-shirt at an American university: “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” It’s a great idea —but it’s not Einstein’s. Throughout this book, I have tried to ensure reliable citation of Einstein’s works. Here’s an authentic quote that sets up the agenda of this book: “Science can only ascertain what is, but not what should be.”[1] Einstein here invites us to explore how to hold science and moral thinking together and sets out his own way of doing this. Science, ethics, and religion are quite different undertakings, playing distinct roles in our lives and based on different thought patterns. How then can we weave their unique perspectives together into a coherent whole? It’s a genuine issue, and Einstein helps us to think about this.
Although this book explores Einstein’s scientific ideas, its real focus is how he attempted to develop a coherent view of the world —a “grand theory of everything” that embraces both our understanding of how the world functions and the deeper question of what it means. Einstein wasn’t just a great scientist; he was a reflective human being who realized the importance of holding together our key ideas and beliefs. His reflections on how to develop such a “big picture” of our world and ourselves might help us move beyond the fragmentation of ideas and values that has become such a core feature of Western culture.
But enough has been said by way of introduction. It’s time to engage with Einstein himself.
[1] Einstein, Ideas and Opinions, 45.