"Quantum mechanics and relativity affected me deeply - personally. It
affected my attitude toward the world. I've always thought of physics
as a sort of ivory tower, from which you venture forth into all other
human affairs, of all kinds. That's why I became a physicist. I could've
earned more money as a lawyer...
...With science I
felt I could grab on to actual things and try to understand them. And
then they turn out to be so extraordinarily mysterious! Newton's
laws of motion, the laws of the electromagnetic field, relativity -
they're so far removed from experience, but yet there it is. It's a
measure of all the other things that I look at. It gives you an approach
to the human race, apart from these inherited things of nationality and
whatnot, which you can't take very seriously. That's what science was
for me - a citadel. I know some place where I can find out things which
are so, and not trivial. Far from trivial....
...So
relativity can have an enormous effect on how I regard myself in the
world. It's hard to communicate to other people who haven't that
experience. Since it is, as far as we know, a universal human
possibility to investigate nature, and the nature of discoveries is so
remarkable, so wonderful - if you want to think of the goal of the human
race, there it is. To learn more about the Universe and ourselves. In
physics, the newest discoveries, like relativity and the uncertainty
relation, uncover new modes of thought. They really open new
perspectives."
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