Einstein and his peers were 'irrationally resistant' to black holes
Albert Einstein and peers initially resisted black hole concepts. Despite theoretical roots dating back a century, acceptance came in the 1960s with observational support. Einstein's work laid the foundation, but reluctance persisted due to clashes between evidence and personal beliefs.
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Albert Einstein and his contemporaries initially resisted the concept of black holes, as explored in an illustrated story. The piece delves into the reluctance of eminent physicists, including Einstein, to accept the existence of these enigmatic cosmic entities. Despite theoretical underpinnings dating back over a century, it took until the 1960s for black holes to gain acceptance, supported by recent observational evidence. Einstein's theory of general relativity laid the groundwork for understanding black holes, with Karl Schwarzschild's solutions hinting at their existence. However, both Einstein and prominent figures like Sir Arthur Eddington struggled to embrace the implications of singularities and infinite collapses within black holes. Their resistance, described as "irrational" by physicist Werner Israel, stemmed from a clash between scientific evidence and personal convictions about the rationality of the universe. The story highlights how philosophical and spiritual beliefs influenced the acceptance of black holes, revealing a complex interplay between scientific inquiry and deeply held worldviews among leading physicists of the early 20th century.
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Einstein and his peers were 'irrationally resistant' to black holes
Physicists, including Einstein, initially resisted the concept of black holes due to their strangeness and implications of singularities. Despite early skepticism, the existence of black holes has been confirmed, reshaping cosmic understanding.
12 commentsEinstein's approach to physics was to reason out the consequences of observable phenomena. He approached understanding of the nature of the speed of light by realizing that a universe where you could travel as fast as (or faster than) a light ray would have consequences that we didn't see. So when the math tells him "gravity causes some regions of space to blow up to become inescapable," and we hadn't seen black holes yet, I think his first intuition being that we'd missed a trick that made the math fail to match reality was a fine intuition.
Math is only useful to physics to the extent that it actually models reality, and not all the extrapolations it makes turn out to have practical grounding; sometimes chasing the extrapolation reaches a contradiction that demands adjustments to math to fix the model. Chasing such adjustments in light of evidence is how we reached relativity in the first place.
Yes, observations have been made to their advantage, through LIGO and more recently the image from 2022 of a black hole made by the Event Horizon Telescope. But I would stress that the ""image"" is much more complex than simply a photo from really good ""telescope"", it's a image made of combined data from radio telescopes all around the world. There is enough weird hoops that they need jump through that the observation can reasonably be doubted in my opinion, which isn't to say that what they've attempted is awesome and inspiring.
Please correct me if you have other information.
For example, compare the picture of Karl Schwarzschild in the article to 7:54 in the Veritasium video. Just a coincidence?
You might define it as quick system 1 vs thoughtful system 2 reaction.
But I’m pretty sure Einstein had thought this through and had good, rational reasons at that time to “resist” the idea of black holes.
Most would have had religious convictions that were really challenged by the physical reality of the universe.
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The James Webb Space Telescope observed galaxy J1120+0641, revealing a mature quasar with a billion solar mass black hole at cosmic dawn. This challenges theories on black hole growth, suggesting they may start with substantial masses. The study sheds light on early black hole development, showing unexpected normalcy in early quasars, challenging assumptions on their evolution.
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Einstein and his peers were 'irrationally resistant' to black holes
Physicists, including Einstein, initially resisted the concept of black holes due to their strangeness and implications of singularities. Despite early skepticism, the existence of black holes has been confirmed, reshaping cosmic understanding.