1, #64 - You could be more wrong.

On relativity — Expected Read Time: 57 seconds.

I love a good plot twist.

This week I read an essay by sci-fi legend Isaac Asimov, which opens with a quote from a letter he received: “In every century people have thought they understood the Universe at last, and in every century they were proven to be wrong. It follows that the one thing we can say about our modern "knowledge" is that it is wrong.”

‘Oooo, that is interesting,’ I thought to myself. ‘I might just have to write this week’s 1 about it!’

… And then Asimov proceeds to spend the rest of the essay absolutely bludgeoning that position.

Yikes!

Asimov argues that wrongness is relative. Which is actually different from the “What’s right for you may not be right for me” moral relativism of Postmodernism. Instead, he’s saying that the correctness of an answer is a spectrum, rather than an absolute line.

One example he gives: If you ask two students “What’s 2+2?” and one says “5” and the other says “Purple” … well, they’re both wrong, but isn’t the second kid more wrong?

But wait, double plot twist! I agree with Asimov’s idea that wrongness is a spectrum, but it doesn’t validate his essay’s overall claim: that today, thanks to modern science, “the Universe is essentially understood.” No, the initial quote was right: History suggests that our knowledge may still be profoundly (not just slightly) incorrect.

So, I guess what I’m saying is … Asimov was right about a lot, here. But he was more wrong.

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Insight inspired by: Isaac Asimov’s The Relativity of Wrong.