My wife and I are having “that discussion.” What new car should we buy?

Before I delve too deeply into this week’s blog, let me clarify that my wife, Natalie, is my love for life.

But, 40 years before I ever met her, I loved Einstein’s mind. 

I remember as a grade school child reading about physics and delving into the life, times, and creativity of Albert Einstein. 

To explain my love affair, let me first acknowledge a few things. Albert did not treat his first wife very well. He was considered a womanizer. He held some arrogance toward various professors. And, he must have been a bear to work with as a Swiss patent clerk in 1905 when he wrote four of the most profound papers in physics, in four very different areas. 

I found fascinating his life and times, and was discouraged by his human foibles. But I can separate the man and the creations in his Annus Mirabilis. 

It is possible that his personal foibles were elemental in his amazing creativity. Had he not distanced himself somewhat from the dogma taught at his college, he may have been constrained to not think about our universe in a different way. It was his scholarly solitude that was the root of his brilliance. He never had that voice in the back of his head that directed him to not explore paths never before followed. 

We think of Einstein as a brilliant polymath. In fact, his first wife provided much of the mathematical scaffolding for his earliest insights. Mileva Marić actually went to class and studied hard. In fact, the elegance of much of Einstein’s best work came from mathematicians adept at converting Einstein’s intellectual clumsiness into beautiful elegance, including a professor of his who may have understood his theory better than he did. 

What Einstein excelled in perhaps like only a handful of others is the ability to imagine familiar things in novel and profound ways. His reimagining created the theory of relativity essential to understand the cosmos, the nature of atoms, the photoelectric effect that powers modern sustainable energy from the sun, and the famous equation E = mc2  that describes nuclear power and the atom bomb. 

When as a child I read about the brilliance of this great mind and the flaws of this mortal person, I knew I wanted to be a professor some day. The opportunity to spend one’s time creating new ideas fascinated me. Writing them down and sharing them so the world can regard them at face value is even more exciting. His gift to humanity was his willingness to write controversial papers, and at times be notorious in other ways, because he knew that conventional wisdom may very much be conventional, but it is not always wise. 

My latest love is a bit more difficult. Elon Musk is much like another grade school hero of mine, Thomas Edison. Both reveled in inventing things others thought were impossible. For Edison, it was the light bulb, the phonograph, generation and motors, and myriad other innovations. For Musk, it has been electric cars, advanced manufacturing, reusable rockets, and brain implants. Neither invented things others could not imagine, unlike Einstein, but each regularly brought to fruition concepts myriad others concluded were impossible. 

Einstein was acerbic, and Musk seems at times to be arrogant, angry, and antagonistic. Often I wonder, Gee, Elon, really? Nobody is perfect, and some are far less perfect than others. 

Musk wants to sell more of what is probably the most innovative cars made. It matters little to him whether a peon like me buys one of his cars. My question is whether I should purchase one of his cars and, in doing so, financially support a person who seems to use his money to at times do destructive things. 

In my analysis, he has plenty of money to do destructive things, with or without my help. In fact, as the world’s richest person, he can probably do whatever he pleases for as long as he lives even if he doesn’t sell a car again. 

Now, I am all for taking symbolic stands, and I am not unsympathetic to the sentiment that purchasing a Tesla will only encourage him. However, it is not about whether I am supporting Musk the man. It is whether I am supporting Musk the concept. 

Musk has single-handedly revolutionized automaking. With transportation representing about a quarter of our energy usage, he has moved us about a decade closer to the energy sustainability that will slow and, with some luck, stop global warming. 

Musk has brought the cost of sending satellites to space down by three quarters or more, single handedly. He launches more rockets each year and sends more satellites to space than the rest of the world combined. He has brought more than two hundred of his boosters back to Earth while no other entity had accomplished that feat even once. He is at the precipice of a new launch vehicle that will absolutely revolutionize the economics of space, and he has used these vehicles to bring the internet to every corner of the world. 

Even a tenth of his accomplishments in a single one of these dimensions should be regarded as incredibly significant. The body of his work is nothing short of incredible. 

I would love to work for him, but I am sure I’d be fired within a week, and would probably be overjoyed to leave. 

This is not to say that some of the things my heroes have done are not completely shameful, even if none (hopefully) are illegal. While their character may not be my cup of tea, their creativity is something any fair-minded person should be able to celebrate. 

Einstein and Edison inspired me to research and teach. I am sure the profession I share with Einstein has its share of scoundrels, just as we find everywhere. But, the Academy loves ideas and exchange of the written word. It marvels in invention. Ideally, the Academy is a meritocracy that celebrates creativity and scholarship, first and foremost. It is absolutely fair enough for the Academy to also work to make scholars better human beings as well. It has a cultural predisposition for human dignity and respect, and a desire to offer gentle correction when people find themselves out of line, in the Academy or elsewhere. Einstein enriched Princeton to the end of his life, and helped build the Institute of Advanced Studies that gathered many of the world's greatest scholars, eccentricities and foibles aside. Princeton also made Einstein better. Now, if only Elon can go back to school.

The world is better for these people. If I am in the market for a car, and a Tesla is the best available technology, innovation will weigh most heavily in my decision. The world is also far better off with Teslas than without, regardless of whether we approve of its inventor. I’m left with the moral decision about whether I am also supporting the mortal and not just the machine. Each of us must do our own calculus. But, I admit I would not be left with that moral quandary if only Musk the man could occasionally reflect on what Buddha would do. Then again, does the Dalai Lama drive a Tesla?

Oh, I also have two other intellectual loves, named Carl Friedrich Gauss and John von Neumann. Sorry Natalie, but be comforted that only one of my intellectual heroes is still alive, not that you are too worried. And while I’d love to meet each of them, I’d probably not want to spend too much time with any of them. I am fine with that.