Who do you see in the photo above? Do you see a young or an old woman or both? If you only see one look at this version:
Here's an article about this optical illusion drawing.
The top drawing (click to enlarge) was used to illustrate an article in The Washington Post (you need a subscription to read it).
The article begins:
Forty years ago this month, the physics community was electrified by a remarkable paper that hinted at the realization of Albert Einstein’s long-held dream: a unified theory of physical reality. The new approach, called string theory, captured the attention of researchers worldwide, as its elegant mathematics offered the potential to reconcile the two most successful yet conflicting frameworks in physics: Einstein’s general theory of relativity, which governs the vast structures of the cosmos where gravity rules, and quantum mechanics, which governs particles populating the subatomic world.
Four decades and tens of thousands of research papers later, where do we stand? The answer lies not only in assessing scientific progress but also in understanding the profound influence of human nature, even in the ostensibly objective realm of science.
Scientists assess the validity of proposed theories by testing their predictions. The challenge for string theory is that it has yet to produce any definitive, testable predictions. This isn’t surprising. String theory diverges from conventional theories only under extreme conditions: where distances are unimaginably small and masses are extraordinarily large, such as in the core of a black hole or in the instant of the big bang. Unfortunately, exploring these realms is beyond our capabilities.
Even today with all the modern tools physicists have to attempt to provide proof for a universal theory of physical reality they have been unable to do so.
The drawing was used to illustrate this point:
Perhaps most important, string theory has realized the concept of duality: the idea that a single physical situation can be described by two distinct mathematical formulations, each offering insights that the other cannot provide. Much like the classic optical illusion that flits between a young socialite and an elderly woman, it is only by embracing both descriptions that we achieve a complete understanding.
In the political world we have people holding two views of the reality of Donald Trump that are incompatible with each other. Some look at Trump and see a beautiful man who will save their world. Others see a scowling man who will destroy our democracy.
Social scientists rather than physicists are tasked with explaining how this can be. Rather than trying to undersand cosmic black holes and how they hold clues to the intriquing and mysterious spooky action at a distance of quantum theory they try to look into the black hole of the minds of Trump supporters.
These black holes are not particularly mysterious. We understand how people's beliefs are influenced by prejudice, bigotry, and gullibility. We understand how some people want to have a leader they perceive as Superman strong and who will vanguish people they consider undesirable. We understand that some people are followers and want a father figure to look up to and make decisions for them.
We can understand all of this, but lamentably there's nothing we can do to change it. Slightly less than half of the country want Trump to be president again. Because of the Electoral College, gerrymandering, and the Trumper's planned dirty tricks to steal the election, they may win the day and Trump will have a second term.
Only those voters in the penumbra of Trump's opaque authoritarian shadow are open to seeing him for the danger to democracy that he is. They have the potential to move into the sunlight of the truth. Only they can make sure the United States doesn't fail the ambitious experiment called democracy which is referred to in the conclusion of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, that our "government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the Earth."
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