Einstein's Dreams (1993)Fittingly enough, Alan Lightman--a professor of physics and writing at MIT--demonstrates the validity of two scientific theories, perhaps unintentionally, in this fine short novel. The first is Stephen Wolfram's recent hypothesis that immense complexity can be derived from running even simple programs. What Mr. Lightman has done is started his novel from a simple idea: it is an early morning in 1905 in Berne, Switzerland and Albert Einstein awaits the typist who will prepare the paper [On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies (A. Einstein, June 30, 1905)] he has just finished working on: In the long, narrow office on Speichergasse, the room full of practical ideas, the young patent clerk still sprawls in his chair, head down on his desk. For the past several months, since the middle of April, he has dreamed many dreams about time. His dreams have taken hold of his research. His dreams have worn him out, exhausted him so that he sometimes cannot tell whether he is awake or asleep. But the dreaming is finished. Out of many possible natures of time, imagined in as many nights, one seems compelling. Not that others are impossible. The others might exist in other worlds.As Einstein dozes, Mr. Lightman recounts that series of dreams and the alternate natures that time might have taken. These dreams have a lyrical, often haunting, often heart-breaking quality to them. Time might be circular, with each moment lived over and over again. It might be peculiar to location, so that the time is never the same in any two places. Time might run backwards, so that we begin by dying and end by being born: 26 April 1905 29 May 1905 10 May 1905 22 June 1905 This really only offers a taste of the melancholy but beautiful vignettes of life in general and of individuals' lives that Mr. Lightman concocts for the reader. He seems as wise in the ways of humanity as in the laws of physics. The second theory can be seen at work in the theme that unifies these varied worlds, because people are almost uniformly unhappy. Mr. Lightman seems to have adopted the anthropic principle--which states that: We may occupy a preferred place or preferred time in the Universe (we may also occupy a preferred universe)--at least for purposes of this book. It's hard to come to any other conclusion but that he thinks we live in a universe where the laws that govern time are structured in such a manner that they maximize human happiness and/or achievement. This makes the book ultimately uplifting, though many of the stories within are ineffably sad. (Reviewed:) Grade: (A) Tweet Websites:-WIKIPEDIA: Alan Lightman -ALAN LIGHTMAN: John E. Burchard Professor, Creative Writing, Physics (MIT) -MIT Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies: Alan Lightman -ART: Caricature of Alan Lightman (David Levine Gallery, NY Review of Books) -EXCERPT: Why the paradoxes of infinity still puzzle us today: Since at least 600 BC, people have been mesmerized by the concept of the infinite (Excerpted from Probable Impossibilities: Musings on Beginnings and Endings, written by Alan Lightman) -EXCERPT: Sticky Time from Einstein's Dreams -EXCERPT: World Without Freedom from Einstein's Dreams -EXCERPT: Smile from Dance for Two -ESSAY: Art That Transfigures Science: What exactly does science have to offer the arts? What are the particular ways in which science provokes us, inspires us and examines who we are? (ALAN LIGHTMAN, 3/15/03, NY Times) -ESSAY: Relativity and the Cosmos (Alan Lightman, Nova: Einstein Revealed) -ESSAY: The Role of the Public Intellectual (Alan Lightman, MIT Communications Forum) -ESSAY: How I Write (Alan Lightman, May 2001, The Writer) -STORY: Maine Light (Alan Lightman, April/ May 1996, Boston Review) -REVIEW: of THE DECHRONIZATION OF SAM MAGRUDER By George Gaylord Simpson (Alan Lightman, NY Times Book Review) -REVIEW: Megaton Man: "Memoirs: A Twentieth-Century Journey in Science and Politics by Edward Teller, with Judith L. Shoolery" (Alan Lightman, NY Review of Books) -REVIEW: of GALILEO'S DAUGHTER: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love By Dava Sobel (Alan Lightman, NY Times Book Review) -REVIEW: of Art and Science: Investigating Matter by Catherine Wagner (Alan Lightman, Double Take) -REVIEW: of Einstein's Miraculous Year edited by John Stachel (Alan Lightman, Atlantic Monthly) -LECTURE: The World is Too Much With Me: Finding Private Space in a Wired World (Alan Lightman, 2002 Hart House Lecture) -AUDIO INTERVIEW: with Alan Lightman (The Fine Print, November 11, 2000, NPR) -INTERVIEW: Alan Lightman (Bookreporter, November 17, 2000) -INTERVIEW: Creative tensions (Soundings, Spring 1999) -INTERVIEW: Lightman Discusses the Writing of Physics (MIT Tech Talk, November 6, 1991) -INTERVIEW: Interview: Alan Lightman (Identity Theory) -PODCAST: Alan Lightman on the Artfulness of the Cosmos: In Conversation with Andrew Keen on the Keen On Podcast (Keen On, February 18, 2021, LitHub) -PODCAST: MIT physicist and novelist Alan Lightman looks for meaning in the age of science (Josephine Reed, 2/09/23, By Any Measure) - -INTERVIEW: Does a Final Theory Exist?: A Conversation with Alan Lightman (Julien Crockett, 2/23/23, LA Review of Books) -PROFILE: Alan Lightman’s (and Everybody Else’s) Search (Jeannette Cooperman, FEBRUARY 5, 2023, The Common Reader) -PROFILE: Valuing Ourselves: Examining How Technology Affects Us (Orna Feldman, Fall 2001, Spectrum) -PROFILE: Alan Lightman (Odyssey '97, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Orientation -Einstein's Web / Einstein's Dreams: Alan Lightman -READERS' GUIDE TO EINSTEIN'S DREAMS (Einstein's Web) -EinsteinsDreams.vt.edu: devoted to the current book in Virginia Tech University's Common Book project -Project on Alan Lightman's Einstein's Dreams (Sara Perry, mit.edu) -Online Literary Criticism Collection: Sites about Einstein's Dreams by Alan P. Lightman (IPL Online Literary Criticism Collection) -ReadingGroupGuides.com: The Diagnosis by Alan Lightman -ARCHIVES: The New York Review of Books: Alan Lightman -ARCHIVES: "Alan Lightman" (Find Articles) -REVIEW: of Einstein's Dreams (Kathleen Sullivan) -REVIEW: of Einstein's Dreams (Dr. George Johnson, txtwriter) -REVIEW: of Einstein's Dreams (Teresa Santoski, Stranger Things) -REVIEW: of Einstein's Dreams (Idris Hsi, GA Tech) -REVIEW: of Einstein's Dreams (Larry Zeller, NYU) -REVIEW ESSAY: February 22, 2001: Charles Simic, Intensive Care (NY Review of Books) The Diagnosis by Alan Lightman Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman Good Benito by Alan Lightman Dance for Two by Alan Lightman -REVIEW: of Good Benito by Alan Lightman (Carl Djerassi, SF Chronicle) -REVIEW: of Good Benito (JASON ANDERSON, Eye Weekly) -REVIEW: of DANCE FOR TWO Selected Essays By Alan Lightman (CHRISTOPHER LEHMANN-HAUPT, NY Times) -REVIEW: of Dance for Two ( Ron Fletcher, Book Page) -REVIEW: of The Diagnosis by Alan Lightman (Abraham Verghese , NY Times Book Review) -REVIEW: of The Diagnosis (Floyd Skloot, SF Chronicle) -REVIEW: of The Diagnosis (Charlie Onion, The Wag) -REVIEW: of The Diagnosis (Marge Fletcher, Bookreporter) -REVIEW: of The Diagnosis (Amy Paris, Sacramento News & Review) PLAY: -REVIEW: One for Al: "Einstein's Dreams" is an evocative and expertly staged - if not naturally dramatic - exploration of the imagination of the young Albert Einstein. (JOSHUA TANZER, www.offoffoff.com) -REVIEW: of Einstein's Dreams (David Finkle, Theater Mania) Book-related and General Links: EINSTEIN: -Nova: Einstein Revealed (PBS) -Einstein's Web -Einstein in Princeton: Scientist, Humanitarian, Cultural Icon (The Historical Society of Princeton) -Albert Einstein (School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews, Scotland) -Einstein - Image and Impact (American Institute of Physics) -ARTICLE: E and mc2: Equality, It Seems, Is Relative (DENNIS OVERBYE, December 31, 2002, NY Times) ANTHROPIC PRINCIPLE: -anthropic-principle.com: Here you will find both popular overviews and scholarly material on everything related to observation selection effects, the anthropic principle, self-locating belief, and associated applications and paradoxes in science and philosophy. (Nick Bostrom, Dept. of Philosophy, Yale University) -Anthropic Principle -The Anthropic Cosmological Principle and Related Issues (Glenn T. McDavid) -ESSAY: Barrow and Tipler on the Anthropic Principle vs. Divine Design (William Lane Craig, Leadership U) -RESPONSE: Is the Weak Anthropic Principle Compatible With Divine Design?: A Response to Craig (Kyle Kelly, Internet Infidels) -POEM:Anthropic Principle (Emily Gaskin, 11/18/02, Strange Horizons) -ARCHIVES: "anthropic principle" (Find Articles) |
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