May 8, 2020
Dear Friends,
Although no one is able to predict the future trajectory of COVID-19, at least within Taiwan we have exceeded three weeks with no new cases. The external-internal distinction here is misleading in some respects, but it is factual that Taiwan has been succeeding in ways that many other countries have not. For this reason, beginning Monday, May 11, the entire College will resume regular scheduling for classes, administrative staff, students, research assistants, and all other events or personnel-related matters. For details concerning class arrangements, research projects, etc. please consult with your professor, PI, or mentor.
We all hope that the worst has passed, but please continue to exercise caution: avoid crowds, wash hands frequently with soap (or alcohol-based sanitizer when soap is not available), wear medical masks in accordance with legal mandates and when it is necessary to protect yourself or others, and try to enjoy life outside rather than inside, as much as possible. As always, if you encounter any problems, don’t hesitate to contact me immediately.
I know little about virology, epidemiology, or the development of vaccines. My knowledge of these things is pedestrian. But I am somewhat more optimistic than others that a vaccine will arrive earlier rather than later. This confidence is not grounded in scientific findings; instead, it might be more a product of a disposition of personality that results from my having grown up in the American Midwest.
I also derive some comfort from the experiences of Jonas Salk, who developed the first vaccine for prevention of poliomyelitis. He did not have extensive resources, nor a large team, but he did have a creative imagination. In his “Anatomy of Reality” (1983), he described his creative process thus: “I would picture myself as a virus…try to sense what it would be like…I would also imagine myself as the immune system…reconstruct what I would do as an immune system engaged in combatting a virus…When I had played through a series of such scenarios…I would design laboratory experiments accordingly.”
This is only one among many ways to stimulate the imagination. I mention it here because one function of consciousness (or so I believe) is that it enables creative response to novelty, including creative response to new viruses. Another reason is that the Salk example is a perfectly natural way of thinking for social animals like human beings, something accessible to all of us at any stage of learning. When, as a child, I first read Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of Julius Caesar,” I was shocked that Caesar could be betrayed by his best friend, Brutus. Betrayal was not something the very much younger version of me understood. But it is in our nature as humans, that we are designed to conjecture, investigate, and refine our conjectures of the motivations of the members of our social cohort. What Salk did was to apply this very natural process of imagining the unknown about other people to the investigation of viruses and the immune system.
What a scientist says about her or his creative imagination should always be taken with a grain of salt. But, while the universe itself is not teleological, assuming that people and viruses have goals and purposes is one productive way of generating hypotheses. Indeed this mental technique even applies to nonliving entities: the difference between graphite (soft) and diamond (hard) has been best explained through application of this mode of thinking—what matters is not the carbon elements themselves. What matters is how they are are structured and how they interact. And the interactions were first imagined as interactions among entities with motivations and goals.
Naturally this type of analogical thinking is not sufficient for scientific breakthroughs: imagination must be accompanied by rigor, for nature cannot be fooled. But if there is any advantage to a pandemic, it is that it creates the opportunity for contemplation of complex problems. One strategy for such contemplation is that adopted by Salk. Money and resources help, but there is no substitute for the delicate blend of creative imagination and rigorous design.
I hope that as we are edging our way back into a normal routine that you can bring with you a feast of ideas—sociological, normative, or neuroscientific—that are worthy of meticulous investigation.
Stay safe and healthy,
Tim
