Einstein, the searcher

by Alexander Moszkowski

He who proclaims the maximum without qualification as the greatest measure of good is like one who studies the various gases in the atmosphere to ascertain their good or bad effect on our breathing, and arrives at the conclusion: the nitrogen in the air is harmful, so we must double the proportion of oxygen to counteract it; this will confer a great benefit on humanity!

[1]*Armed with this striking analogy, we can now subject the foundation of Siemens' theory to a new scrutiny, and we shall then discover that even the premises contain a trace of the petitio principii that finally receives expression in the radical and one-sided expression: "Coal is everything."

[1]The parts included between *...* are to be regarded as supplementary portions intended to elucidate the arguments involved in the dialogue. In many points they are founded on utterances of Einstein, but also contain reflections drawn from other sources, as well as opinions and inferences which fall to the account of the author, as already remarked in the preface. One will not get far by judging these statements as right or wrong, for even the debatable view may prove itself to be expeditious and suggestive in the perspective of these conversations. Wherever it was possible, without the connexion being broken, I have called attention to the parts which Einstein corrected or disapproved of. In other places I refrained from this, particularly when the subject under discussion demanded an even flow of argument. It would have disturbed the exposition if I had made mention of every counter-argument of the opposing side in all such cases while the explanation was proceeding along broad lines.

As if built on solid foundations this first statement looms before us: Coal is solar energy. This is so far indisputable. For all the coal deposits that are still slumbering in the earth were once stately plants, dense woods of fern, which, bearing the burden of millions of years, have saved up for us what they had once extracted as nutrition from the sun's rays. We may let the parallel idea pass without contention: In the beginning was not the Word, nor the Deed, but, in the beginning was the Sun. The energy sent out by the sun to the earth for mankind is the only necessary and inevitable condition for deeds. Deeds mean work, and work necessitates life. But we immediately become involved in an unjustifiable subdivision of the idea, for the propounder of the theory says next: "... Coal is solar energy, therefore coal is necessary if we are to work ..." and this has already thrust us from the paths of logic; the prematurely victorious ergo breaks down. For, apart from the solar energy converted into coal, the warmth of our mother planet radiates on us, and furnishes us with the possibility of work. Siemens' conclusion, from the point of view of logic, is tantamount to; Graphite is solar energy; hence graphite is necessary, if we are to be able to work. The true expression of the state of affairs is: Coal is, for our present conditions of life, the most important, if not the exclusive, preliminary for human work.

And when we learn from political economy that "in a social state only the necessary human labour and the demand for power-installations which require coal, and hence again labour for their production, come into question," this in no way implies the assertion, as Siemens appears to assume, that coal can be made out of labour. But it does signify that work founded on the sun's energy need not necessarily be reducible to coal. And this probably coincides with Einstein's opinion, which is so much the more significant, as his own doctrine points to the highest measure of effect in forces, even if only theoretically.*

Nevertheless, it is a fact that every increase in the quantity of power derived, when expressed per kilo, denotes a mitigation of life's burdens; it is only a question of the limits involved.

Firstly, is technical science with its possibilities, as far as they can be judged at present, still able to guarantee the future for us? Can it spread out the effective work so far that we may rely peacefully on the treasures of coal slumbering in the interior of the earth?

Evidently not. For in this case we are dealing with quantities that may be approximately estimated. And even if we get three times, nay ten times, as many useful calories as before, there is a parallel calculation of evil omen that informs us: there will be an end to this feast of energy.

In spite of all the embarrassments due to the present shortage of coal we have still always been able to console ourselves with the thought that there is really a sufficiency, and that it is only a question of overcoming stoppages. It is a matter of fact that from the time of the foundation of the German Empire to the beginning of the World War coal production had been rising steadily, and it was possible to calculate that in spite of the stupendous quantities that were being removed from the black caves of Germany, there remained at least 2000 milliards of marks in value (taken at the nominal rate, that is, £100,000,000,000). Nevertheless, geologists and mining experts tell us that our whole supply will not last longer than 2000 years, in the case of England 500 years, and in that of France 200 years. Even if we allow amply for the opening up of new coal-fields in other continents, we cannot get over the fact that in the prehistoric fern forests the sun has stored up only a finite, exhaustible amount of energy, and that within a few hundred years humanity will be faced with a coal famine.

Now, if coal were really the measure of all things, and if the possibility of life depended only on the coal supply, then our distant descendants would not only relapse into barbarity, but they would have to expect the absolute zero of existence. We should not need to worry at all about the entropy death of the universe, as our own extinction on this earthly planet beckons to us from an incomparably nearer point of time.