Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman
A fictionalized compilation of stories about time, relativity, and physics that Albert Einstein dreamed about in 1905 is called Einstein’s Dreams. The rebellious but compassionate young genius imagines many potential universes as he develops his theory of relativity, a new understanding of time. In one, because of the circular nature of time, people are destined to keep experiencing both successes and failures. In another, time seems to have stopped, and there are lovers there as well as parents holding onto their kids. In another, time is a nightingale that occasionally gets caught in a bell jar.
Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman
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- Explores the connection between science and art
- Explores the process of creativity
- Explores the fragility of human existence
“Einstein’s Dreams” is a very thought-provoking book with chapters that represent various ways Einstein may have thought about time as he developed his theories leading up to them, such as:
Suppose time is a circle, causing the world to repeat itself — people live their lives over, and everything repeats.
In a world where cause and effect are inconsistent, scientists are laughed at, but creative people are happy.
In a universe where time flows like water, lives are occasionally sent back in time.
In a world where several eras of time coexist—the 13th, 15th, and 18th centuries, for instance—the tragedy is that no one is content since they are all alone.
The stories in this book are all quite brief—a few pages each—and speculate on what Time could have been like. In one tale, people move to the mountains in an effort to extend their lives because they believe that time flows more slowly at higher altitudes. In other tales, Time is reversed, or it moves at various speeds based on the place, or it changes depending on the direction of motion. Despite the author’s background in physics, Einstein’s scientific thought experiments pale in comparison to the romantic, dreamlike, and magical realism of the author’s writings.
