E=mc2: Why Einstein Was Wrong

Einstein was wrong.

No, not his very popular Theory of Relativity, nor his less well known work on the Photoelectric effect (which earned him the Nobel Prize). Einstein seems to have had plenty of time on his hands, relatively speaking of course, and produced many memorable quotes.

Einstein was wrong when he defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. If he was right, we would have to consider most of today’s world insane.

I have personal experience of this every time I start up my computer and open a much-used application, something as simple as e-mail. My e-mail supplier cannot resist the temptation to “improve” the service. I usually spend the first few minutes trying to find the standard features that have been mysteriously moved to a “better” place. They should have listened to Einstein:

“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex … It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.”

Using my computer, I have come to expect different results from doing the same thing and am rarely disappointed.

But this is nothing compared to the insanity that seems to be sweeping the United Kingdom. Just a short while ago, the people were asked for their opinion on Brexit. It was called a referendum. The people spoke, but the politicians could not accept the result. Let’s try again, they cried, perhaps we will get a different result. At least they have changed the players; a different result is a possibility.

And we in Israel are no strangers to the try and try again phenomenon. Not that long ago, we had an election. The people spoke, their votes were counted and the result declared. But the result satisfied no one. Now we are going to be given another chance; we are headed for another election. Unlike the lucky voters in the UK, we will have the same parties, with the same opaque platforms and the same promises of tax cuts funded by tax increases. Perhaps we will get it right this time. But, although we may make the Guinness Book of Records for the shortest time between elections, there is no reason to believe that the result will be any different.

While we wait for our votes to be counted yet again, we let Einstein have the last word:

“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”