Postmodern Cosmology

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.