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Einstein is best known for his theories of special and general relativity, but these two theories can hardly represent the impact Einstein had on the scientific community and technology as a whole. "The scientific touchstones of our age the Bomb, space travel, electronics all bear his fingerprints" (Isaacson 60)
However, Einstein's influence is not limited to technological and theoretical innovation. When Einstein published his theory of general relativity, the concepts of absolute time and absolute rest were completely uprooted. "Did this imply, people asked, that there were no absolute moral standards, that everything was relative?" (Hawking 70). His theory brought the question of perspective into the public's mind, allowing people to question what was accepted to be true, whether it be a physics theory or a social stereotype. "Just as Darwinism became, a century ago, not just a biological theory but also a social theology, so too did relativity shape the social theology of the 20th century" (Isaacson 60).
In addition to these effects, Einstein also taught the lesson of humility, by proving that we were each a mere speck in an unfathomably large universe. As we develop technologically, our humility becomes necessary. Einstein once wrote, "A spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe, in the face of which we, with our modest powers, must feel humble".
Einstein also worked as a humanitarian, helping many Jewish refugees get into an unwelcoming U.S.. Einstein is noted as campaigning for a ban on nuclear weaponry, denouncing McCarthyism, and pleading for an end to bigotry and racism. At the height of World War I, Einstein signed an antiwar petition in the face of the Kaiser's wrath. He was one of only four scientists in Germany to do so. Einstein even urged the Allies to set up a world government to control the atom bomb at the end of World War II. Despite his continual involvement, Einstein did not care for politics. He is quoted as saying; "Politics is for the moment while an equation is for eternity" (Hawking 81). Instead, Einstein had a deep sense of morality and engaged himself when he felt that humanity was not being represented.
In a hundred years, as we turn to another new century nay, the times a hundred years, when we turn to another millennium the name that will prove most enduring from our own amazing era will be that of Albert Einstein: genius, political refugee, humanitarian, locksmith of the mysteries of the atom and the universe. (Isaacson 60)
He was surely a man deserving of the fame we grant him today.