Einstein's Dreams

Where the two times meet, desperation. Where the two times go their separate ways, contentment. For, miraculously, a barrister, a nurse, a baker can make a world in either time, but not in both times. Each time is true, but the truths are not the same.
-Einstein's Dreams

Alan Lightman is able to explain various theories of time with little or no technical jargon or whatsoever. It was also done in articulate manner where in the reader won't get confused and have to read a paragraph more than once. In addition to the manner with which he discusses to them, this must be because of his style when it comes to presenting ideas. He does it by comparing the different ideas and using examples. (Commercial break: I loved the cause-effect example in the 3 May 1905 entry by the way, and the whole chapter itself.)

It's not a very confusing thing to read, given the main topic it discusses.

There is a lot of imagination. If not, he's able to write down in words of the different possibilities and forms time could take.

It's a good read but it's not for everybody. Thus, I cannot guarantee that it's fun to read for everybody.

It also requires more brain cells than reading Gossip Girl (even though you wonder endlessly who the fuck Gossip Girl is) but less than reading A Brief History of Time.

You should probably read it if you've ever contemplated (a) what happens after death; (b) how come time is how it is right now; (c) how they make crab meatsticks without using real crab meat.

If you're feeling philosophical, interested in the theory of relativity, or if you are my 4th year Physics teacher Mr. Coronado, you should probably read it.

I liked how a variation of time was described in the world described in the 24 April 1905 entry. It shows how many of us seem to do things according to will but in truth, mechanical (or digital ;) haha) clocks dictate when we execute what we want to do. At least that's how I see it. I don't exactly want to phrase it as some people being swallowed by clocks (or them swallowing clocks) because as far as I can see, human thought and will is still involved.

Overall, this April 24 entry could be suggesting that we are lacking in spontaneity with time constraints ruling over when we carry out tasks. But is a life being dictated by a clock too bad? It is and is not all at the same time. Moderation is just needed because without it, routines become monotonous and may lose their meaning or change purpose. It does more than just help organize things... it organizes it to the point of sucking out the beauty in what you do. Thus, your appreciation declines. Do you get what I mean?

More generally, April 24 discusses how things have become too quantized, too literal, and less animate. It limits how we think of ourselves and our surroundings, limits what we can do and limits possibility. And it talks about how some people take their biology textbooks too seriously that thought becomes "no more than electrical surges in the brain." This too is consistent with what I mentioned in the previous paragraph: beauty is lost when some things, such as thought or excitement, are reduced to merely functional occurences.

And I love how truth was portrayed in its relativity. So there, let me stop talking about the April 24th entry.

That short analysis of the April 24th entry is somehow a presentation of a part of the book. (Because I believe that you'll get a better grip of the book that way... That's why I give quotes too since I believed that somehow, how the book reads influences how much you want to read it.)

And then, the quotes... I don't know about when you've finished the book but I loved a lot of things written in this book. I cannot quote all of them because it would be too much then. But many things were just described beautifully, or many beautiful things were put into words.

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Suppose time is a circle, bending back on itself. The world repeats itself, precisely, endlessly.

For the most part, people do not know they will live their lives over. Traders do not know that they will make the same bargain again and again. Politicians do not know that they will shout from the same lectern an infinite number of times in the cycles of time. Parents treasure the first laugh from
their child as if they will not hear it again. Lovers making love the first time undress shyly, show surprise at the supple thigh, the fragile nipple. How would they know that each secret glimpse, each touch, will be repeated again and again and again, exactly as before?

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A world in which time is absolute is a world of consolation. For while the movements of people are unpredictable, the movement of time is predictable. While people can be doubted, time cannot be
doubted. While people brood, time skips ahead without looking back.

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Scientists are buffoons, not because they are rational but because the cosmos is irrational. Or perhaps it is not because the cosmos is irrational but because they are rational. Who can say which, in an acausal world?

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If a person holds no ambitions in this world, he suffers unknowingly. If a person holds ambitions,
he suffers knowingly, but very slowly.

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(This paragraph is just beautiful.)

Most people have learned how to live in the moment. The argument goes that if the past has uncertain effect on-the present, there is no need to dwell on the past. And if the present has little effect on the future, present actions need not be weighed for their consequence. Rather, each act is an island in time, to be judged on its own. Families comfort a dying uncle not because of a likely inheritance, but because he is loved at that moment. Employees are hired not because of their resumes, but because of their good sense in interviews. Clerks trampled by their bosses fight back at each insult, with no fear for their future. It is a world of impulse. It is a world of sincerity. It is a world in which every word spoken speaks just to that moment, every glance given has only one meaning, each touch has no past or no future, each kiss is a kiss of immediacy.