Everything is determined by forces beyond our control. Everything is determined, for the insect as for the star. Human beings, vegetables or stardust, we all dance to the rhythm of a mysterious tune played in the distance by an invisible piper.
It was first recorded in a 1949 book titled “The Evolution of Physics” by Max Born, who was a colleague of Einstein’s. Born wrote that he had heard Einstein say the quote in a conversation with Paul Dirac and Esther Salaman in 1926.
The quote reflects Einstein’s belief in determinism, which is the philosophical view that all events are determined by previous events and that there is no such thing as free will. Einstein believed that the universe is governed by a set of laws that are ultimately deterministic, even if we cannot fully understand them.
The quote also suggests that Einstein saw the universe as a kind of clockwork mechanism, with everything moving in accordance with pre-determined laws. The image of the “invisible piper” playing a “mysterious tune” is a vivid way of describing this view of the universe.
To remind you that determinism is a philosophical concept that suggests that all events, including human actions, are ultimately determined by pre-existing causes. In other words, determinism argues that every event has a cause that precedes it, and that those causes are themselves determined by earlier causes, creating a chain of causality that stretches back to the beginning of time. This idea has been debated for centuries and has implications for fields ranging from psychology to physics.
When we say that the universe is a “clockwork system,” we’re referring to the idea that the universe operates according to a set of predetermined rules or laws of nature, much like the gears of a clock. In other words, everything that happens in the universe is the result of cause-and-effect relationships that can be explained by scientific principles. This idea is closely tied to determinism, as it suggests that the universe is deterministic in nature - that is, every event that occurs is the result of prior causes, and those causes can be understood through scientific study. Einstein was a proponent of this view of the universe. He believed that the laws of physics were immutable and that everything that happened in the universe was the result of those laws interacting with matter and energy.
It is important to note that Einstein’s belief in determinism was not absolute. He believed that there was a certain amount of randomness in the universe, and that we could never fully predict the future. However, he also believed that the laws of physics ultimately determine everything that happens, even if we cannot see how.
The quote “Everything is determined by forces beyond our control” is a powerful reminder of the limits of human knowledge and free will. It can be a daunting thought to believe that our lives are not our own, but it can also be a source of comfort to know that we are not alone in the universe. We are all dancing to the same tune, after all.
