nation’s values as the true guiding lights of humanity. The supremacy of those
winning values then lives on, and the values are written up and lauded in our
histories, and go on to be retold in stories, passed down to give future
generations hope. Eventually, when those values cease to be effective, they
will lose out to the values of another, newer nation, and history will continue
on, a new era unfolding.
“This, I declare, is the form of human progress.”Newton finished writing. He placed his theory of emotional gravitation on the
same stack with his three Laws of Emotion and then paused to reflect on his
discoveries.
And in that quiet, dark moment, Isaac Newton looked at the circles on the
page and had an upsetting realization: he had no orbit. Through years of
trauma and social failure, he had voluntarily separated himself from
everything and everyone, like a lone star flung on its own trajectory,
unobstructed and uninfluenced by the gravitational pull of any system.
He realized that he valued no one—not even himself—and this brought
him an overwhelming sense of loneliness and grief, because no amount of
logic and calculation could ever compensate for the gnawing desperation of
his Feeling Brain’s never-ending struggle to find hope in this world.
I would love to tell you that Parallel Universe Newton, or Emo Newton,
overcame his sadness and solitude. I would love to tell you that he learned to
value himself and others. But like our universe’s Isaac Newton, Parallel
Universe Newton would spend the rest of his days alone, grumpy, and
miserable.
The questions both Newtons answered that summer of 1666 had
perplexed philosophers and scientists for generations. Yet, in a matter of a few
months, this cantankerous, antisocial twenty-three-year-old had uncovered the
mystery, had cracked the code. And there, on the frontiers of intellectual
discovery, he tossed his findings aside to a musty and forgotten corner of a
cramped study, in a remote backwater village a day’s ride north of London.
And there, his discoveries would remain, hidden to the world, collecting
dust.^48