Everything changes, they say. Here is a picture of something that will change very quickly. There is no stopping it, no slowing it down, no delaying it. Boom! What you saw is gone. Shame, that. Newton wasn't thinking of this illustration when he developed his concepts of time. He simply saw units of precise measurement. It took Einstein to articulate this. Newton, it is often claimed, was asexual. Einstein's predilection, of course, is well known to have turned in this direction. Einstein, perhaps, was more a student of biology than he has been given credit for.
But change, sometimes, decreases diversity. I was reading about MOOCs this morning in the New York Times. Massive online classes may be the economical mode of education in the future. One lecturer can serve thousands or even hundreds of thousands of students at a time. The article argues that in such classes, students are motivated and are very good at grading one another's work, as accurate, really, as their professors. It seems perfect. No more travel time to universities. No more massive debt after graduation. Online video games can replace expensive football programs. O.K. The last part was not in the article. It was my idea.
I like the idea myself. Who wouldn't. Any time, day or night, I can dial into a classroom, open a beer, and listen to Professor Marvel profess divine. It will be good for me.
But to think that Professor Marvel will be the Monsanto of poetry or sociology or physics is a little scary. To think that so many thoughts will sprout from the same seed--it's like genetically engineered corn. We might all be fertilized with the same bad gene.
But the marketplace will straighten all of that out. Really, I haven't any worries. Or if I do, I shouldn't. There will always be mad scientists and heretics to help us right our wrongs. You just have to love Albert Einstein. And Maurice Chevalier, too, for that matter.
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