Seeing as how I am one of the blog contributors with the least interesting summer (how can Ithaca hope to compete with Spain, Uganda, and shit-throwing baboons?), I've decided to introduce a new feature to our beloved blog. This feature is called Chuck Klosterman's Question of the Week. Chuck Klosterman is a fantastic writer about pop-culture, music, and sports. In one of his books he proposes '23 Questions I Ask Everybody I Meet In Order to Decide If I Can Really Love Them.' They are all difficult, essential questions of our time. Over the next few months, I will post one or two of these questions every week, and anyone who wishes can offer their 2 cents in the comments section. Perhaps by the end of the summer we'll know who on this list we can really love. So, drumroll please, here is Question #1:
1. Let us assume you met a rudimentary magician. Let us assume he can do five simple tricks--he can pull a rabbit out of his hat, he can make a coin disappear, he can turn the ace of spades into the Joker card, and two others in a similar vein. These are his only tricks and he can't learn any more; he can only do these five. HOWEVER, it turns out he's doing these five tricks with real magic. It's not an illusion; he can actually conjure the bunny out of the ether and he can move the coin through space. He's legitimately magical, but extremely limited in scope and influence.
Would this person be more impressive than Albert Einstein?
11 comments:
More. I bet someone else would have figured out relativity eventually, and it's not like he did something as wonderful as cure all forms of cancer.
Genuine magic would challenge my understanding of the universe more than Einstein's theories.
I'm probably forgetting something, but what makes Einstein so impressive?
Ok, but here's the thing: Einstein struggled for years to come up with relativity and all that. And though I can't tell you exactly what its importance is, all major scientists recognize him as a genius. If this magician just woke up one morning being able to make a rabbit disappear, that's not that impressive to me. If he worked his ass off for it, then we can talk.
I'm going to have to agree with Joel on this one. What is so incredible about Einstein is that he was able to EXPLAIN a phenomenon such as special relativity. (The coolest example I've heard of with special relativity is its application to time. Lets say a person travels on a spaceship, which is going at a speed comparable to the speed of light, for 5 years according to us on Earth. However, according to the guy on the spaceship, he has been gone for a couple years, much less than 5.) The fact that Einstein explained how time and space are not absolute, but dependent on the observer, is extremely impressive, especially considering we think of an entity such as time as constant.
The fact that the magician can do magic, which is unexplainable, is uninteresting. I always find the most interesting part of the magic trick to be the process of figuring out how it is done. Finding an explanation is more impressive than just accepting that something can be done.
Ok, let's not put words in my mouth, Ani. Einstein is more impressive, yes, for his hard work and ability to explain. I like that phrasing. BUT, the magician is way cooler. He's definitely interesting. Who would I deem a more vital contributor to world history? Einstein. Who would I definitely invite to my birthday party? Magician.
you know joel, even if you invited me to your birthday party i wouldn't come
now the real question, in my mind, would be - is magic incredibly easy to catch, like let's say I was in a room with said magician and happened to touch his sleeve, would I be magical too?
because that would fulfill one of my childhood dreams. You should ask my mom, I thought that I was a witch for a considerable part of my childhood(and still really really hope that I'm not normal now)
I, for one, am not a huge fan of explanations. They take the "magic"(oh gosh how corny) out of everyday living...
I much prefer to believe that when I jump in a descending elevator I'm not just utilizing some freak gravitational hiccup(and no I don't want you to explain what really is happening), but I am actually standing on air(flying) for those few seconds
but then again, I'm not totally rooted in reality!
For the record, I'm familiar with time dilation (faster objects experience a "slower" pace of time), length contraction (fast moving objects appear shorter), the whole "twins paradox" etc.
Whoop-dee-Frickin'-do
Now, if he invented a propulsion system that allowed you to travel near (or beyond) the speed of light, I would give him more credit.
Special relativity existed independently of Einstein. He just explained an existing phenomenon rather than creating something new. In that regard he's kind of like the high school teacher that taught you calculus, but just operating on a higher level.
I still think that the teleportation of material (even if just from one hand to the other), the spontaneous generation of matter (not to mention that it takes the form of a full-fledged living creature), and so on is still more impressive than generating a theory of (as of yet) limited practical application. The Doppler Effect really isn't that cool.
I also argue that a perfectly unique skill is more impressive than a very difficult but replicable accomplishment.
Someone else could (and probably eventually would) have figured out relativity.
If it is any consolation, had a man single-handedly invented the steam engine, I would find him more impressive.
I wouldn't worry about it Ani - you're probably not going to be invited.
Will has sold me on the magician. Pre-emptively, I would allow the gorilla to play and stick with the Dark Crystal girl. I love it too, and if she's my soulmate, so be it.
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