Einstein
[Prologue]
Time is a curious thing.
Time is a fourth dimension.
Time changes,
yet the flow of time is absolute and universal.
Time is a curious thing.
The increasing speed of railway travel
made it necessary
to codify time zones around the world.
People would ignore local time,
the noon of the sun,
and go by the noon on their clocks,
ignore waking up in a warm bed,
in a pitch-black room
in darkness
and go by the noon of their clocks.
Could you tell me what time is?
Time is a curious thing.
In the beginning there was
nothing and everything
Four fundamental forces –
the electromagnetic force,
the strong nuclear force,
the weak nuclear force,
and the gravitational force,
unified as one.
In the beginning there was
no Time,
no Space,
no Light,
no Dark,
no thing,
no nothing,
no where
or when
but then:
the first subatomic particles,
the first atoms,
the first stars,
the first galaxies,
the Milky Way,
the Solar System,
Life,
Death,
Oxygen from Photosynthesis,
Eukaryotic Cells
Multicellular Life,
Vertebrates,
Insects,
Amphibians,
Reptiles,
Dinosaurs,
Mammals,
Birds,
Flowers,
no more Dinosaurs,
Apes,
the first Human Being.
A human being
is part of the whole world,
called by us "Universe",
a part limited in time and space.
[End of Prologue]
March fourteenth, eighteen-seventy-nine,
At eleven hours thirty a.m.
Ulm,
The Kingdom of Württemberg,
The German Empire
Albert Einstein is borm.
Dear Professor Einstein,
Could you tell me
what Time is,
what the soul is,
and what the heavens are?
Thank you,
Peter
June twenty-first, eighteen-eighty,
Hermann and Pauline Einstein move to Munich with their one-year-old son.
Hermann and his brother Jakob found the
Elektrotechnische Fabrik J. Einstein und Company.
November eighteenth, eighteen-eighty-one
Albert sees his newborn sister Maria,
called Maja,
for the first time.
He wonders:
Yes, but where are the wheels?
I want to know what is beyond the sky.
My mother said you could tell me.
Eighteen-eighty-four
Albert is five years old, and sick in bed.
His father brings him a compass.
As he examines its mysterious powers
he trembles and grows cold.
Something deeply hidden had to be behind things.
Out yonder was this huge world,
which exists independently of us human beings,
which stands before us
like a great, eternal riddle.
I want to know what is beyond the sky.
My mother said you could tell me.
Nineteen-o-one
Albert is in love with Mileva.
Nineteen-o-two
Mileva gives birth to a baby girl, Lieserl out of wedlock.
I love her so much and don't even know her yet!
Nineteen-o-three
Mileva Mariç and Albert Einstein marry
and will divorce within fifteen years.
I am very sorry about what has happened to our Lieserl.
Scarlet fever often leaves some lasting trace behind.
Nineteen-o-four
Hans-Albert is born,
he becomes a scientist.
And six years later
Eduard is born.
Eduard is mentally weak.
Twenty-three more years later,
before emigrating,
Einstein will visit his schizophrenic son at the asylum
one last time.
Einstein will keep up correspondence
and continue to send money for his sons's care.
The two will not meet again.
Nineteen-o-five
Annis Mirabilis
On a Heuristic Viewpoint
Concerning the Production
and Transformation of Light.
One the Motion of Small Particles
Suspended in a Stationary Liquid,
as Required
by the Molecular Kinetic Theory of Heat.
On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies.
Does the Inertia of a Body
Depend Upon Its Energy Content?
I wonder if you could perhaps tell me
the outline of your theory?
Just a vague and brief summary,
if you have any time,
although,
now I come to think of it,
I'm pretty sure
you don't have much time.
Nineteen-twelve
Time is a fourth dimension.
I wish you could explain to me by letter
how the fourth dimension works.
Nineteen-fifteen
General relativity,
a theory of gravitation.
Professor Einstein,
What holds the sun and planets in place?
If I were not a physicist,
I would probably be a musician.
I often think in music.
I live my daydreams in music.
I see my life in terms of music.
I cannot tell
if I would have done any creative work of importance in music,
but I do know
that I get most joy in life out of my violin.
October seventeenth, nineteen-thirty-three
Einstein leaves Europe
to give a series of lectures
in the United States.
He does not return.
Dear Mr. Einstein, I am writing to you to find out if you really exist.
Nineteen-thirty-eight
A discovery by nuclear physicists
in a laboratory in Berlin,
Germany,
makes the first atomic bomb possible,
after Otto Hahn,
Lise Metiner
and Fritz Strassman
discovered nuclear fission.
Kernspaltung.
The death of one butterfly
has a ripple effect on subsequent historical events.
Nineteen-forty
Research is being carried out in great secrecy
at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics, Germany,
applying the uranium research to the construction
of extremely powerful bombs of a new type.
Dear Mr. Einstein,
I am a little girl of six.
I saw your picture in the paper.
I think you ought to have a haircut,
so you can look better.
February, Nineteen-forty-three
The Soviet Union secretly launches
its own atomic program
under the direction of Igor Kurchatov.
The intellect has a sharp eye for methods and tools,
but is blind to ends and values.
April, Nineteen-forty-three
J. Robert Oppenheimer projects that one hundred grams
of twenty-five percent enriched Uranium-Two-hundred-and-thirty-five
will be produces
by Electromagnetic Seperation
by January first, Nineteen-forty-four.
Dear Dr. Einstein,
My father and I are going to build a rocket
and go to Mars or Venus.
We hope you will go too.
We want you to go because we need a good scientist
and someone who can guide a rocket good!
Do you care if Mary goes too?
She is two years old.
She is a very nice girl.
July, sixteen, nineteen-forty-five,
at five hours twenty-nine and forty-five seconds
Explosion of bomb Trinity
in the desert of New-Mexico
Explosive force was twenty-two kilotons.
It created an enormous mushroom cloud
some forty thousand feet high
and ushered in the Atomic Age.
Dear professor Einstein, could you tell me
If nobody is around and a tree falls
would there be a sound, and why?
August sixth, nineteen-forty-five
Hiroshima, Honshu, Japan
the United States Army Air Forces detonate
a uranium gun-type fission bomb
nicnamed
Little Boy
[Epilogue]
I write to you all this because
I have just read your volume
The World as I See it.
And I inquire in a spirit of desperation,
is there in your view no comfort,
no consolation for what has happened?
Am I to believe
that my beautiful darling child has been forever
wedded into dust,
that there was nothing within him
which has defied the grave
and transcended
the power of death?
May I have a word from you?
I need help, badly.
Sincerely yours, R.M.
Dear Mr. M.,
A human being is part of the whole world,
called by us “Universe”,
a part limited in time and space.
He experiences himself,
his thoughts and feelings
as something separate from the rest –
a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.
Not to nourish the delusion
but to try to overcome it
is the way to reach the attainable measure of peace of mind.
With my best wishes,
Sincerely yours,
Albert Einstein