Wilson: Einstein Imagination

Released on: Saturday, January 27, 2007 8:00 AM

    

Wilson: Einstein And the Power of Imagination

 “WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF …?”

by Don Wilson

When Time Magazine decided to name a “Person of the Century,” the list of finalists was staggering: Franklin Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, Hitler, Churchill, and more.  But the nod was given to Albert Einstein, and the decision is indisputable.  More than anything, the 20^th Century was the age of physics.  It was an era that saw the birth of a radically different way of viewing the universe – a new vision that altered everything from the way we negotiate international politics to the way our children entertain themselves after school.  And behind every aspect of that new vision stands one shaggy-haired, absent-minded, avuncular figure.

Modern physics has two major strands – relativity theory and quantum theory – and Einstein stands at the headwaters of both.  While known primarily for the former, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work on the photo-electric effect, a fundamental concept in the development of the latter.  Though he objected strenuously to the indeterministic implications of sub-atomic physics, he nonetheless continued groundbreaking work that regularly undergirded the research program.

Einstein’s was a life driven by a relentless pursuit of the truth, unhindered by preconceptions of what that truth must look like.  When fellow scientists insisted that theories be elegant, he quipped, “If you are out to describe truth, leave elegance to the tailor.”  His most valued scientific tool was the thought experiment – an imagination game in which he created a bizarre set of circumstances and tried to figure out how the world would behave in them.  He constantly asked himself, “What would happen if …?”  This compelling, convention-defying question lay behind every world-changing discovery he made.

Einstein constantly warned against the enemies of creative thought – tradition, prejudice, and short-sightedness – all of which make the fatal mistake of assuming the world is much smaller than it is.  “It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education,” he quipped, and “The important thing is not to stop questioning.”  In a stunning rebuke of his most obvious asset, he cautioned, “We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.”

George Bernard Shaw once said, “Some see things that are and ask why; I dream of things that never were and ask why not.”  Albert Einstein is the Person of the Century because he imagined things that might be and asked, “What if?”

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” – Albert Einstein

For more, visit the Albert Einstein Archives at Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

About columnist Don Wilson

Editor Note:

The people we've chosen to write about have/had their quota of human failings and foibles just like the rest of us... But they share one transcendent quality: All of them in some way, at some time, acted courageously.  We appreciate columnist, Don Wilson, for focusing on Albert Einstein issues as well as his remarkable accomplishments and his powerful power of imagination.

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