Einstein’s Dreams The Book

1. Einstein’s DreamsThe Book Relativity for Dummies or Why I wish I had Alan Lightman for Physics

2. How does the young Einstein of Einstein’s Dreams differ from your preconceptions of Einstein? Who is the Einstein of the book? Man v. Myth

3. Two Levels of Einstein’s Dreams • “The first level contains many elements of science fiction.  It asks questions like "What if time were circular and known to be so?" or "What if causality did not exist?"   Picky readers looking only at this aspect will find the book to be rather uneven and strained.  For example, a world with no time has been described with a series of evocative and frozen images of people and things, such as "A cat watching a bug on the window.".  But a world without time could not have reached this state.  Rather the worlds that Lightman described have reached some state, approximately something that we would recognize, and then have had this new time condition imposed upon them.  But, these exceptions aside, the internal logic of each world can be very thought provoking.” • Idris Hsi

4. Physics and Humanity • “A deeper reading reveals a very carefully crafted and fascinating picture of humanity.  Within each world live people who make decisions and choices based on how they perceive time.  For example, the people living in a world about to run out of time, seize all the moments they can and abandon restraint and, it seems, bitterness and ambition.  They dance naked through the fountains, fulfill fantasies that were unrequited, and express their love for family and friends before the final moment.  Lightman provides us with a subtle reminder that our mortality, bound inextricably to the finite time allotted to us as a species, influences our little decisions, life paths, and philosophies.  Almost every world describes a person or a class of people that we encounter in our daily lives.  In seeing how and why these fictional people act, we can't help but to examine our own behaviors in our "real" world. “ • Idris Hsi

5. Time Is Running Out • The world will end tomorrow. • What will you do today?

6. Reflect • A world in which time is absolute is a world of consolation. • Each time is true, but the truths are not the same. • Scientists are buffoons, not because they are rational but because the cosmos is irrational….In this world, artists are joyous. • …in this world, the texture of time happens to be sticky….So too, individual people become stuck in some point of their lives and do not get free. • Without memory, each night is the first night, each morning is the first morning, each kiss and touch are first. • In a world of fixed future, there can be no right or wrong. • For the children, time moves too slowly already….For the elderly, time darts by much too quickly.

7. What is your favorite time? • Exiles in Time (16 April, 1905) • For if he makes the slightest alteration in anything, he may destroy the future. • Tempus Fugit (26 April, 1905) • They celebrate their youth in their mirrors and walk naked on their balconies. • Instruments of Time (28 April, 1905) • Those of religious faith see time as the evidence of God. • The End of Time (8 May, 1905) • But what is there to fear now? • Time Stands Still (14 May 1905) • They would rather have an eternity of contentment, even if that eternity were fixed and frozen like a butterfly mounted in a case. • Tempus Incognitum (20 May, 1905) • A world without memory is a world of the present. • Tempus Eternum (9 June, 1905) • Such is the cost of immortality. No person is whole. No person is free. • Temple of Time (18 June, 1905) • They must watch measured that which should not be measured.

8. Could these be chapters in Einstein’s Dreams? • Groundhog Day • Back to the Future • It’s a Wonderful Life • 50 First Dates • The Butterfly Effect • The Simpsons - Butterfly Effect