Relativity and Me

Few axioms of life are as counterintuitive and, seemingly, as limited in everyday significance as Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity. I can positively and undeniably assert my certainty that I will never approach the mark of one tenth of the speed of light in my casual travels. I will therefore never be subjected to the peculiarities, irregularities, clock malfunctions, or mind-boggling space-time convolutions that lie at the limits of Einstein's prodigious imagination.

However, there are several lessons to be learned by the process if not by the product. For one, the minds of Aristotle, Galileo, Newton, Einstein, Maxwell, Michelson, and even Morley seem to be adherents to a relativism whereby their accomplishments are basked in so much greatness and genius as to render the rest of us relatively brainless.

The business and social spheres also seem to partake in a sort of space and time contraction. The swifter parties gain steam and their success looks easy to those left behind. If Joe watches a spaceship accelerate to roughly the speed of light, he will see the distance to its destination shrink beneath the raw might of speed. Joe will grow old and gray while the adventurer, Moe, feels only lightly the rapacious hand of time.

So it is with the upward businessman. Let's call him Moe. As Moe climbs rapidly up the social ladder, the reticent man in the mailroom (Joe) perceives as minimal the distance between Moe and success, the time that it takes for him to reach his goals. As Joe watches the light beam of success, he ages quickly under the weight of bureaucracy and stagnancy.

Meanwhile, Moe feels like he is working hard for every accomplishment. His time frame is unaffected by the speed which Joe sees it. Moe feels like it is natural and prudent to accomplish great things in small time. His preconditioned skills for success are like the fuel of a rocket that moves him into a higher uniform motion. But once successful, Moe cannot tell how much better off he is than Joe. Moe has grown accustomed to uniform success.

This Joe-Moe allegory can be applied to Einstein so as to make me feel better about my own incompetence. In 1905, Einstein published five groundbreaking experiments. However, this doesn't mean that he worked any harder determining the origins of the universe than his coworker at the Swiss patent office (let's call him Roe) worked organizing patents. Einstein's scientific acumen simply exceeded that of Roe's. Consequently, from Roe's mentally immobile viewpoint, Einstein's prowess at physics is as advanced and seemingly impossible for Roe to achieve. But for Einstein's faster mind, the discovery of E=mc² is as achievable as it would be for space traveling Moe to keep his original hair color while stuck-on-earth Joe ages fifty years.

It is always important to comfort yourself when dealing with the vastness of space. I console myself that in the infinite spectrum of scientific understanding - starting with fire and ending in, for lack of a better word, God - my shortcoming in physics is comfortingly close to that of, say, Hawking in the exterior of space-time.

Another interesting side effect of the theory of relativity is the possibility of a new theory of life on earth posited in accordance with the great theory of the cosmos. If space is relative and time is relative, what can truly be considered constant? Morality itself comes into question. The precept of an absolute morality for men seems destined for a philosophical death. If time is not constant, ethics surely cannot be. If Moe is entitled by the governing laws of the heavens to stay young while his fellow, Joe, ages and dies, how can a society decree that Moe doesn't have the right to kill Joe under certain circumstances. Just as the universe usually makes Moe's age stay close to Joe's, so should Moe usually refrain from killing Joe. The universe's exceptions to the rules for lower speeds betray a possible exception to the rules that govern lesser men. If a fast spaceship can defy Newtonian Physics, should a great man be able to defy the general code of conduct and destroy the life of a lesser man. Dostoyevsky concluded that the great man should not destroy the little, but Dostoyevsky lived before the cosmic examples of defiance set forth by Einstein.

This argument is, of course, absurd. But it brings up the dilemma about how much special relativity pertains to everyday life. While it may be tempting to apply the fresh concept of relativity to all things, doing so would surely create chaos among morality, the social order, and indeed almost anything that it is applied to. For example, take the most famous demonstration of the power of the theory of relativity, the nuclear weapon. If a nuclear warhead does not embody chaos, what does?

But instead of looking at the technologies brought into being by Einstein's brilliance as chaotic and destructive, I choose to view them for the good they are capable of. Nuclear power and the emerging field of hydrogen fuel cells hold great promise for the benefit of mankind. We should concentrate on the possibilities for construction inherent in the harnessed power of the atom although we can never overlook the vast potential for atrocious chaotic disaster that results in the loss of control of powers as grandiose and feral as nuclear experiments gone awry.