The movie “Jakob the Liar” tells the story of many Jews holding onto hope through the lies of the protagonist, Jakob (Robin Williams), as the title suggests. During World War II, in a Jewish ghetto under Nazi occupation in Poland, radios were forbidden. Owning a radio was a capital offense. Jakob, who runs a pancake shop, accidentally overhears through a German radio that the Soviet army has defeated the German forces near Poland. When Jakob shares this joyous news with his friend, rumors spread throughout the ghetto that Jakob possesses a radio. Unintentionally becoming a liar, Jakob realizes that people find hope in his lies and cannot stop them. His lies grow and eventually reach the ears of the German Gestapo. Jakob is tortured and forced to admit the truth, but he cannot take away people’s hope. In the end, Jakob dies, giving hope to the people through his lies. Directed by Peter Kassovitz in 1999, “Jakob the Liar” begins with Jakob’s monologue:
“So we relied on the little things:
A dark joke.
A sunny day.
A hopeful rumour.”
In “Jakob the Liar,” lies are another name for hope. Just as Jakob says, hopeful rumors prevent the people in the ghetto from giving up on their lives. Everyone lies. We all possess the ability to lie well. It is said that children start lying at around five years old, a natural phenomenon that appears with the development of language and imagination. This ability distinguishes humans from computers and animals. While animals may occasionally deceive by pretending they haven’t eaten forbidden food or by using tricks to evade predators, their capabilities are limited. Animals cannot imagine something that doesn’t exist to endure current hunger or assume that something exists to prepare for the future. Lies are possible because humans have the ability to imagine.
Most things we call science today would have been considered magic in the past. Without visible proof, they would have been dismissed as lies. Especially invisible forces like “power.” If ancient people who didn’t know about science saw us talking on wireless phones, what would they think? It’s either a lie or magic. Such magic gradually became science through human efforts. Ironically, one of the significant contributions to this process was lying. Imagining something that doesn’t exist or pretending that something exists has been crucial.
The subjects around us possess numerous qualities. It’s too complex to fully grasp them at once. In such cases, our ancestors, the scientists, imagined ideal objects that don’t exist in the real world. Examples include perfect rigid bodies or perfect black bodies in physics. A perfect rigid body is a material that completely regains its shape after external force ceases. A perfect black body is an imaginary object that absorbs all light. These objects do not exist in reality. Easier examples are perfect squares or circles, which also do not exist in the real world and cannot be created. However, we imagine their existence. Using mathematical formulas or laws derived from these ideal objects, we apply them to reality. While we must recognize the difference between reality and ideals, we often apply them directly. When calculating the area of a playground or the volume of an air balloon, we use formulas for perfect rectangles or spheres and accept the approximations as real. Though we know there’s a margin of error, we accept that it’s not a perfect answer. This method of understanding the world is not limited to natural sciences. Plato created an ideal country through imagination to compare with real countries. In Neo-Confucianism, the ideal country is represented by ‘Li’ (理), while ‘Qi’ (氣) represents the real world. These models simplify human thought and reflect the problems of the real world.
In academia, such simplified worlds are called hypotheses. They are ideal worlds or substances that don’t actually exist but could under certain assumptions. Economics also creates ideal worlds to understand complex phenomena, such as perfect competition markets or efficient market hypotheses. A perfect competition market is one without any barriers to competition, with numerous buyers and sellers and perfect information. An efficient market reflects all available information in its prices, preventing anyone from making additional profits through information. These hypothetical markets do not exist in reality.
Both natural sciences like physics and social sciences like economics use these hypotheses to simplify the world and examine their assumptions to better understand reality. Modeling through assumptions is fundamental to establishing theories in social sciences. Models simplify complex reality by assuming that everything except the emphasized characteristics is constant or nonexistent. By excluding all but one variable, that variable stands out more clearly. Architectural models emphasize relative size and shape, assuming other aspects are unimportant. Both natural and social scientists have discovered significant meanings by ignoring everything but one variable. Ignoring means assuming it doesn’t exist or remains unchanged.
Einstein’s theory of special relativity might still be awaited if the constancy of the speed of light were unknown. Fortunately, Einstein knew the speed of light was constant. Newton thought speed could increase infinitely due to the concept of acceleration in motion. However, in 1887, American scientists Albert Michelson and Edward Morley proved through experiments that the speed of light is always constant. Einstein’s theory of special relativity can now be easily understood because the speed of light is fixed. Speed is expressed as ‘distance ÷ time.’ To keep the speed of light constant, if the distance increases, the time must also increase proportionately. This is the core of Einstein’s special relativity theory: there is no absolute time or space; both are relative and can change. This interpretation is possible because the speed of light is constant. Einstein could use the fact of the speed of light being constant, not just an assumption.
According to the special relativity theory, the length of a moving object shortens, and a clock in motion ticks slower than a stationary clock. Expressing time relativity separately means that one second on a moving object is not the same as one second on a stationary object. Understanding the core concept of special relativity makes such statements more acceptable. For example, if we assume we’re moving at the speed of light, which is impossible with current science, time would not pass.
How can the shortening of a car’s length be understood? Similarly, if a high-speed train is passing by at the speed of light, its length would shrink to zero. With the above understanding, the statement “a high-speed train running at 300 km/h shortens by 1/100 trillion” becomes more comprehensible. Although the formula for this calculation is not simple, physicists can easily prove that objects contract proportionally to their speed. The change is imperceptible in reality, but such phenomena can be observed. For instance, navigation satellites moving at 4 km/s experience a time delay of about 7 microseconds per day, considering gravity. GPS devices account for this time difference when providing information. Despite being brief, our GPS might always be showing us where we’ve already been.
Understanding the world through assumptions or modeling is not limited to natural sciences. Economics has long adopted and developed these methods from physics. Economic theories of supply and demand are based on the assumption that all variables except price and quantity sold are constant. The use of assumptions or hypotheses to understand the world is not confined to academia. We are trained in this method through various activities. Learning abstract art in painting or poetry involves assuming that nothing exists except the characteristics we want to express. Root-Bernstein advises that “abstracting methods learned in one field become the key to understanding abstraction in all fields” because abstraction starts from reality but reveals the essence by trimming away the unnecessary. Such simplification is done by artists, writers, scientists, mathematicians, and dancers alike.
In reality, we all use this method without being conscious of it. When resolving conflicts, expressions like “excluding financial issues” or “setting aside that matter” imply assuming those factors don’t exist. These expressions often indicate the importance of the excluded factor. Nevertheless, we try to simplify complex situations through such assumptions.
Although we may not formulate specific hypotheses, we approach problems with some possibilities in mind, collecting data accordingly. Without any preliminary thoughts on possibilities, gathering information or devising methods to solve a problem would be tedious and dull. These possibilities are hypotheses. Investigating everything without a hypothesis would require immense time and effort. Therefore, it is efficient to formulate an initial hypothesis based on gathered information. Suppose we are reviewing complex data or materials. Without knowing the exact meaning of the information, we can hypothesize based on some data.
This requires some imagination. For example, if a historian investigates an ancient kingdom, they need to find many artifacts and evidence to understand its culture and life. However, they can estimate the culture’s characteristics with a few clues found so far. Searching for clues to prove the hypothesis is more efficient than aimlessly wandering. Hypothesizing is also useful when reading vast and complex books. After skimming the title and parts of the book, hypothesizing what the author wants to say can make reading more efficient. Although such hypotheses may need modification during reading, starting with a hypothesis is a good time-saving strategy. Occasionally, we encounter disappointing situations. After skimming and hypothesizing that a book seems good, we might buy it only to find it disappointing. Thus, experience and expertise are needed to formulate good hypotheses.
Anyone can lie because we have the ability to imagine. This ability can be used positively, like in benevolent lies, but it is also essential for understanding and explaining the world. Simplifying the world through assumptions or hypotheses is a method of thought. The difference between a hypothesis and a lie is whether its falsehood is acknowledged. Through these hypotheses, we simplify the world and understand it more easily. Jazz legend Charles Mingus said:
“Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.”
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