Albert Einstein, brilliant 20th century physicist (and thinker in general) famously conducted “thought experiments” when working out problems for which traditional scientific experiments were impossible. In his most well-known thought experiment (or gedankenexperiment in his native German), Einstein imagined chasing, and eventually catching, a beam of light as it moved through space. As he worked his way through the experiment in his imagination, Einstein derived his Special Theory of Relativity and iconic equation E=mc2. Neither Einstein nor anyone else has been able to prove this in a practical sense, but it has become the theoretical underpinning for modern physics, not to mention everyday life in the digital age. (And Einstein claims he was 16 years old when he began contemplating Special Relativity!)
Einstein’s 17th century predecessor, Isaac Newton, conducted thought experiments as well. Every bit the scientist and thinker Einstein was, Newton envisioned firing a cannonball from the top of a tall mountain. The more force with which the cannonball is fired, the farther it will travel before falling back to earth. (Which everyone who has ever thrown a ball or swung a golf club knows.) Newton’s insight as he worked through his calculations was realizing that if the cannonball were fired with just the right amount of force it would never fall back to earth. By combining his law of inertia with his law of gravitation, Newton demonstrated that man could launch a satellite capable of orbiting the earth indefinitely. A little over 300 years after Newton was born, the Soviets did just that with Sputnik 1. If you have ever watched DirecTV, listened to SiriusXM radio, or used Google Earth, you have Isaac Newton to thank.
Einstein and Newton got me to wondering, if thought experiments can work out problems of physics when actual experiments are impossible, can they be applied similarly to problems of society that can’t actually be modeled? Specifically, one might ponder the question “Who is the problem, and what would life be like if they were gone?”
Many view the world today through a political lens. For them, Republicans or Democrats are the problem. If either would just disappear, society would be great. Others view the world through a racial lens. For them, white-skinned folk are inherently evil or black-skinned folk are the real problem. In the absence of either, life would be grand.
In our thought experiment imagine waking up to your ideal world, in which those in the problem group have ceased to exist. They didn’t suffer a painful exit; rather, depending on your point of view, Republicans, Democrats, white-skinned folk, or black-skinned folk simply fell asleep one night and drifted peacefully to the next world. The result is your utopia.
How long do you think everyone will get along in this brave new world? Take your time. Think it over. (Queue Jeopardy music in the background.) Got the answer yet? Correct, probably about as long as it takes you to read this article.
Think about the most homogeneous societies that have existed in the history of the world. Consider the ancient Sumerians, Hebrews, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans from the old world or the Mayans, Aztecs, and Incas from the new. Were any of them free from disagreement, strife, and conflict? No.
Man is a cantankerous animal as Twain or Faulkner might say. Selfishness is part of our nature (not all of it, thankfully, but part of it). There will be times when we are in conflict with our neighbor even if they are exactly like us. We must learn to get along with them in order to thrive. And if we must learn to get along with those who are like us, we might as well learn to get along with those who are not, because that is the only world we’ll ever live in.
Kelley Williams is a Northsider.
