Since the beginning of
the semester, we have discussed the transition from modernism to postmodernism
with regard to our culture – we talked about changing trends in literature, art,
music, entertainment, etc. One thing that I found extremely striking, which we
did not touch upon in class, was the surprising number of parallels with
science and technology. In spite of the fact that science and literature seem
diametrically opposite, some of the most transformative and innovative concepts
in science, such as quantum mechanics and space travel, led to changes in our
fundamental understanding of the structure of reality that mirror the cultural
shifts leading to postmodernism.
One
of the key differences we discussed between modernism and postmodernism is the
focus on epistemological versus ontological questions. Modernist writers and
philosophers placed emphasis on experiencing and expressing the world from one’s
own perspective. For them, our world was a constant universe defined by logical
patterns, and we as humans should attempt to understand where we fit in it.
Postmodernists, however, are more inclined to question which and what kind of
world we live in, rather than simply taking the world for granted as being
singular and all-compassing. One classic example of postmodernism would be Star Wars, which attempts to make sense
of an alternate world with futuristic technology “a long time ago in a galaxy
far far away.” Interestingly, this concept of alternate realities with slightly
different environments is essentially the same as the many-worlds
interpretation of quantum mechanics. For some particles, it is impossible to
determine exactly how they will behave; rather, one can calculate a probability
of each behavior. Some physicists speculate that every possible behavior
actually does occur, except each one takes place in a different universe.
Essentially, this means that every possible timeline of events occurs in some
universe. One could then think of Star
Wars simply as having taken place in a universe that branched off from our
reality as humans there made huge breakthroughs in space travel.
Just
as authors can be classified as modernist or postmodernist based on their
literature, so too can physicists based on their theories. Einstein, for
example, was clearly a modernist. He was strongly against the inherent
randomness of quantum mechanics, and spent his life trying to come up with a
deterministic representation of the universe. One of his most famous quotes
denouncing quantum mechanics was “God does not play dice with the universe,” a
quote that goes hand in hand with the modernist idea that the behavior of our
world is logically structured. The detective novel is the epitome of modernist
literature for precisely this reason – given a crime and some evidence, the solution
to the case is deterministic, and the protagonist will logically explore all
the information he or she has to reach this solution.
These
parallels between physics and literature are clear evidence, in my opinion,
that the seemingly distinct worlds of science and the humanities are actually
fundamentally linked, and that any cultural shift of the magnitude of the
change from modernism to postmodernism is caused by and affects both worlds.
