That's an excellent and thought-provoking article.
I think I can describe in one word the moral quality that Robert Oppenheimer was trying to sum up: innocence. Innocence is a very powerful and deeply attractive quality (I mean attractive in a general sense, not the more limited sexual sense in which the word is commonly used), and Einstein had it in abundance. The whole theory of relativity arose from one of the most innocent questions imaginable: "what would the world look like if I could ride on a beam of light?". That has almost the quality of a child's fairy tale, yet it is deeply profound.
We need more innocents in the world; I'm afraid the current climate is somewhat inimical to their development. Having said that, I think I do know a man who is as innocent as Einstein was, but he is not a scientist; however, he is a genius in his own way.
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Date: 2006-01-01 11:01 am (UTC)From:I think I can describe in one word the moral quality that Robert Oppenheimer was trying to sum up: innocence. Innocence is a very powerful and deeply attractive quality (I mean attractive in a general sense, not the more limited sexual sense in which the word is commonly used), and Einstein had it in abundance. The whole theory of relativity arose from one of the most innocent questions imaginable: "what would the world look like if I could ride on a beam of light?". That has almost the quality of a child's fairy tale, yet it is deeply profound.
We need more innocents in the world; I'm afraid the current climate is somewhat inimical to their development. Having said that, I think I do know a man who is as innocent as Einstein was, but he is not a scientist; however, he is a genius in his own way.