Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What did Einstein really do that was so great that helped humanity?“
Einstein did nothing to benefit us.
Moreover, he helped build the atom bomb, and told us that there are properties in our world that we cannot understand.
It would have been better if he and the other nuclear physicists had done nothing. We can get along fine without nuclear power, and of course, without atom bombs. For all the praise Einstein receives, we have no need for what he brought us.
In general, I think that science of the 20th century brought no benefit to humanity. I do not want to deny its achievements, because science did quite a lot. The problem is that our scientific innovations and achievements have turned against us.
Indeed, we do not work as hard as we did in the past. We have made for ourselves all sorts of appliances and tools that grant us more free time. But what do we do with our increased free time? We bring ourselves more and more troubles and concerns, and we increasingly deplete the earth of its natural resources.
I do not see happier people as a result of our scientific progress. People used to engage in much more emotionally and mentally constructive activities. We used to spend more time listening to large works of music, attending theaters and reading thick novels and other literature. Today, people’s attention spans have drastically dropped, and we find ourselves more with our heads down, thumbing our phones, mindlessly scrolling down our social media feeds.
We have much more depression, loneliness, anxiety, stress, drug abuse and suicides than ever before. There might be an illusion that we became happier by not having to work as hard as we did in the past, but we see that less work and more luxury time does not equate to more happiness.
Although Einstein was sincere in his pursuits to create a better world, I see that he and many like him did not crack what it takes to make us happier people.
I say all this despite the fact that I like and encourage science. The problem with science is not science in and of itself, but its blending with human egoism, where we wish to use science for the purposes of overpowering, outcompeting, manipulating and exploiting others. This egoistic quality in man turned Einstein’s discoveries into the creation of an atom bomb. Therefore, the message here is not to do away with science, but that we should develop science after we correct the human ego. We first need to correct ourselves, i.e., to learn how to invert our inborn intention to benefit ourselves at the expense of others and nature, otherwise we will use science and any kind of innovation we make eventually to our detriment.
If it were possible, I would willingly go back to Einstein’s time and instead of developing science, I would introduce connection-enriching education that guides us on how to correct the human ego. Only after we develop frameworks for positively relating to one another above our inborn desires to exploit and abuse others, we should then let science develop.
Science would then benefit humanity. As a result of connection-enriching education, we would come to feel humanity like our family. Our research would then never lead to the creation of weapons and the atom bomb that we use to bring mass destruction and anxiety to humankind. We would only seek how to make creations that would make people happier, more confident and safer by increasing our positive connection to each other above our harmful egoistic drives.
Based on the video “Conversations with Michael Laitman” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on May 13, 2015. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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Question: As a Kabbalist, can’t you see the current pressure on humanity as good?
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