Just a little clash of thoughts in my mind recently….
By chance I’ve read several books/articles lately where Ed Witten’s name pops up; always of course in glowing terms, i.e., ‘the most brilliant scientist of our time,’ ‘the most important thinker alive,’ ‘the greatest living theorist,’ etc. Indeed, many of the other leading thinkers of our time admit that Witten is a person with ideas they can barely comprehend or keep up with. He is a mathematical physicist (and a Fields Medalist, among many awards), and I won’t even try to offer a bio or synopsis of him here (other than to say he and I were born in the same year, after which our lives diverged considerably ;) — most readers no doubt know basically who he is.
But what struck me in seeing his name so much recently, is that most Americans (outside the astute readers of this blog of course ;)) likely have no idea who Ed Witten is — his name would be largely unknown I bet to 90++% of all literate Americans.
I suspect, in his day, and certainly now, the name “Albert Einstein” was known to most all Americans. Even names like Heisenberg, Bohr, and others probably are somewhat recognizable to a majority of again literate Americans. Late in life, and especially following his death, “Richard Feynman” became very well-recognized among masses of American citizens. And of course there's Stephen Hawking too. Yet this current ‘most brilliant man alive’ exists somewhat in virtual obscurity outside of the scientific community that reveres him.
I’m not someone who thinks we should place individuals on pedestals (in fact I dislike the practice of building monuments/statues to individuals, or even naming buildings/streets after them, etc.), but I do wish our education system and press made citizens more aware of such major contributors to our knowledge and progress. I can’t help but think what a splendidly better country this would be if more of the electorate knew the name “Ed Witten” than knew the name “Kim Kardashian.” We might even then be a nation that would not elect (more tragically than laughably) an incompetent, authoritarian demagogue to the highest post of the land… and take 3 damn shattering years to impeach his autocratic ass. ...ehh, just some idle thoughts for this Tuesday. ;)
