Fatal Equations

In the opening chapter of Modern Times, the historian Paul Johnson discusses Einstein’s inability, despite his best efforts, to ground physics in a unified objective theory. Instead, his Theory of Relativity launched moral relativism. To Einstein, writes Johnson, relativism was “a disease” and a “social pandemic.” Einstein had “lived to see his fatal equation bring into existence nuclear warfare. There were times, he said, at the end of his life, when he wished he had been a simple watchmaker.”

For better or worse, great scientific thinkers alter the way we think and act in the physical world—even more so than political leaders. Galileo brought about the scientific revolution of the 17^th century; Newtonian physics spurred the Enlightenment; and Darwin’s biology played-out in epochal 19^th century debates over religion and Marxism.

The ongoing controversy over the NSA and the extent of the executive branch’s abuses makes me wonder if we are experiencing another scientific shift. In this case, the use of advanced computer technology by American elites for covert surveillance and counter-terrorism purposes.

Just as e=mc² was an ostensibly neutral statement about the nature of time and matter, the innovations of Silicon Valley may be, on the surface, value-free. But as average people accept the reality that this technology enables Facebook or the Obama campaign can gather “meta data” on our Internet-use patterns, so too do we become complacent in the government’s vast surveillance network.  This technological shift dramatically alters our own social interactions and, as we are now seeing, tolerance for federal power. Call it the Age of Algorithm.