Physicists are Selfish

There’s a pattern I’ve noticed. If you look deep down into the personality of a truly motivated physicist, you’ll find a self-serving person. It doesn’t make sense at first- why do these selfish people pursue the ‘saint-like’ profession of a scientist? Why do these people then not go after money or fame but rather something that promises to change lives for the better? What we forget to consider though, is that these people aren’t just scientists, they’re physicists, and however advantageous physics might turn out to be for society, goodwill is not the reason people study physics.

So why are physicists selfish? The answer is quite the pinnacle of Irony. The reason people take the most scientific, logic governed path in life they could possibly choose, is to answer the most basic, somewhat illogical, humongous, and unfortunately probably unanswerable philosophical questions that have troubled the human mind for eons. What is the nature of reality? Where did we come from and where are we going as a species? Where did the universe originate from? Why do humans and life in general exist if there is really no need for us? What is consciousness? Can everything be predicted if we calculate with infinite accuracy? If everything can be calculated, then do we even have free will? Are there only three dimensions? If there are more, then why don’t we experience every dimension as clearly as we do the first three? Why do we experience time as a temporal dimension instead of a spatial one we can walk through? Can we travel through time? Why is there even a limit to speed and why is light the fastest thing ever? I’m pretty sure I can list three pages of such questions, and that is just off the top of the head of a 16-year-old boy who hasn’t even started studying physics formally yet.

Humans are interesting creatures. We are curious and we really, really want answers to these questions. We want something quantifiable and definite and we want zero loose ends. We want a theory of everything. The problem is this: a Theory of Everything sounds too simple to be true. Even if there is one collective, ‘simple’ answer that can answer all of the questions above, we aren’t even close to discovering it. The question again arises. Why do people study Physics if they know that they’re never going to get answers to the questions that keep them up at night?

This is my answer:

Because there is no better alternative. The only other route is thinking about it all day, only to end up with no answers. Yes, being in a constant state of existential crisis is an option for some, but to me, that seems like being in denial of a big cloud of frightening uncertainty looming about your head. When there is a crisis, you try to solve it. You leave every other whim and worry in the world and you focus on trying to unravel that one crisis into smaller pieces and you solve it one by one. For people who are familiar with the scientific method, this is reductionism and it is the bedrock of physics. So, when someone asks me why I wonder about things that ‘don’t even have an answer’, I will become the most philosophical person and I will say-

Because if I don’t, it is all just a waste isn’t it? Even though many of us realize that we aren’t going to get any answers in our lifetimes, we are still willing to dedicate our lives to this pilgrimage where we are periodically greeted by failure and all we do is persevere. Because if we don’t, because if we don’t even try, then it is all just a waste, isn’t it?