Physics of the Future(1)

In mythology, the rise and fall of great empires depended on the strength and cunning of one’s armies. The great generals of the Roman Empire worshipped at the temple of Mars, the god of war, before decisive military campaigns. The legendary exploits of Thor inspired the Vikings into heroic battles. The ancients built huge temples and monuments dedicated to the gods, commemorating victories in battle against their enemies.

           But when we analyze the actual rise and decline of great civilizations, we find an entirely different story.

If you were an alien from Mars visiting earth in the year 1500 and viewed all the great civilizations, which would you think would eventually dominate the world? The answer would be easy: any civilization but the European one.

In the east, you would see the great Chinese civilization, which had lasted for millennia. The long list of inventions pioneered by the Chinese is without parallel: paper, the printing press, gunpowder, the compass, etc. Its scientists are the best on the planet. Its government is unified and the mainland is at peace.

In the south, you have the Ottoman Empire, which came within a hairbreadth of overrunning Europe. The great Muslim civilization⁽²⁾ invented algebra, produced advances in optics and physics, and named the stars. Art and science flourish. Its great armies face no credible oppositions. Istanbul is one of the world’s great centers for scientific learning.

Then you have the pitiful European countries, which are racked by religious fundamentalism, witch trials, and the Inquisition. Western Europe, in precipitous decline for a thousand years since the collapse of the Roman Empire, is so backward that it is a net importer of technology. It is a medieval black hole. Most of the knowledge of the Roman Empire has long since vanished, replaced by stifling religious dogma. Opposition or dissent is frequently at war with one another.

So what happened?

Both the great Chinese and Ottoman empires are entering a 500-year-period of technological stagnation, while Europe is beginning an unprecedented embrace of science and technology.

Beginning in 1405, the Yongle emperor of China ordered a massive naval armada, the largest the world had ever seen, to explore the world. (The three puny naval ships of Columbus would have fit nicely on the deck of just one of these colossal vessels.) Seven massive expeditions were launched, each larger than the previous one. This fleet sailed around the coast of Southeast Asia and reached Africa, Madagascar, and perhaps even beyond that. The fleet brought back a rich bounty of goods, delicacies, and exotic animals from the far reaches of the earth. There are remarkable ancient woodcuts of African giraffes being paraded at a Ming Dynasty zoo.

But the rulers of China were also disappointed. Was that all there was? Where were the great armies that could rival the Chinese? Were exotic foods and strange animals all that the rest of the world could offer? Losing interest, the subsequent rulers of China let their great naval fleet decay and eventually burn. China gradually isolated itself from the outside world, stagnating as the world lunged forward.

A similar attitude settled in the Ottoman Empire. Having conquered most of the world they knew, the Ottomans turned inward, into religious fundamentalism and centuries of stagnation. Mahathir Mohamad, the former prime minister of Malaysia, has said, “The great Islamic civilization went into decline when Muslim scholars interpreted knowledge acquisition, as enjoined by the Qur’an, to mean only knowledge of religion, and that other knowledge was un-Islamic. As a result, Muslims gave up the study of science, mathematics, medicine, and other so-called worldly disciplines. Instead, they spent much time debating on Islamic teachings and interpretations, on Islamic jurisprudence and Islamic practices, which led to a breakup of the Ummah and the founding of numerous sects, cults, and schools.”⁽³⁾

In Europe, however, a great awakening was beginning. Trade brought in fresh, revolutionary ideas, accelerated by Gutenburg’s printing press. The power of the Church began to weaken after a millennium of domination. The universities slowly turned their attention away from interpreting obscure passages of the Bible to applying the physics of Newton and the chemistry of Dalton and others. Historian Paul Kennedy of Yale adds one more factor to the meteoric rise of Europe: the constant state of war between nearly equal European powers, none of which could ever dominate the Continent. Monarchs, constantly at war with one another, funded science and engineering to further their territorial ambitions. Science was not just an academic exercise but a way to create new weapons and new avenues of wealth.

Soon, the rise of science and technology in Europe began to weaken the power of China and the Ottoman Empire. The Muslim civilization, which had prospered for centuries as a gateway for trade between the East and the West, faltered as European sailors forged trade routes to the New World and the East- especially around Africa, bypassing the Middle East. And China found itself being carved up by European gunboats that ironically exploited two pivotal Chinese inventions, gunpowder and the compass.

The answer to the question “What happened?” is clear. Science and technology happened. Science and technology are the engines of prosperity. Of course, one is free to ignore science and technology, but only at your peril. The world does not stand still because you are reading a religious text. If you do not master the latest in science and technology, then your competitors will.

(1) Physics of the Future by Michio Kaku; Copyright 2011- Pages 295-297

(2) Muslim Civilization is commonly used to represent a period of time when a large part of the Middle East was ruled by Moslem emperors who found Islam the best tool in subjugating people and crush any dissident as infidel. It does not mean that there was a civilization as a result of Islam. Nomads of Arabia in seventh century were suddenly able to conquer civilized and prosperous countries in the north whom for many centuries they used to pay tax to, and for many reasons that had nothing to do with religious faith. As science and technology was widespread in those countries, nomads started learning civilization and technology. This continued until they began opposing science at the time when they had enough power and became so ambitious to ignore advances in science, that resulted their downfall, as it is explained here by Michio Kaku.

(3) As it was mentioned above, there was a different reason for Islam dismantling pursuit of science. From the dawn of Islam the slogan of the conqueror was that all the science of the world was already in Qur’an and there was no need for any other book! History is filled with events of book burning by Moslem conquerors. Remember, Bible and Qur'an both mean book in their respective languages!