Understanding the Mind
Inspired (Pt.4)
EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION
Albert Einstein once felt certain he had discovered a unified field theory — until a colleague observed that, under it, the universe could not exist. In the fourth installment based on Matt Richtel’s Inspired: Understanding Creativity: A Journey Through Art, Science, and the Soul, Doug presents a parallel between evolutionary leaps and the trial-and-error process that carried Einstein toward relativity and Galileo toward modern astronomy.
A Note on the Original Text
Doug’s writings are presented as originally written. Spelling, punctuation, and grammatical irregularities have been retained to preserve his words and the integrity of the original record.
ORIGINAL WRITING
Once, a creativity scholar told me, Albert Einstein felt overcome by a creative spark. He felt certain he had discovered a unified field theory to explain the whole of existence. He confided in a colleague.
“Interesting, the colleague answered, but “under that theory the universe can’t exist.”
A tight parallel exists linking the fact that a fish crawls onto land, or a reptile takes flight, and the trial-and-error way in which the Theory of Relativity ultimately came to Einstein, or how modern astronomy sprang from Galileo’s brainier sounds of glory and ennui emanate from the lips of Miles Dewy Davis III. The machinery of change, the factories of creativity that live inside in each of us, are directly analogous to the machinery that exists inside cells to replicate and and mutate genes.