Einstein's Dreams

This is a series of interludes about time, the meaning of time, and alternate worlds where it moves or behaves differently. From time moving backwards to behaving differently depending on elevation, to every time being local or more poetically being captured in birds. The trouble is how extremely half-baked everything is, and presented almost breathlessly as if you've never dared to consider such a world before, when I'd wager most of us have and much more extensively. So much so that you're asking if time moves backwards why is someone still enjoying tea and not having it coming up out of their stomach to fill a cup.

Every Twilight Zone premise is just a couple of pages, barely an outline for the concept. There's no time to develop the show more idea or its consequences, and if you really cared about that you'd be reading a scifi story, which the target audience for this book would likely scoff at and refuse.

Alternatives: The short form and hypothetical interludes reminds me most of Jorge Luis Borges, who manages to do far more what-if's with the same sparse word count.
Or, dip into hard sci fi that will bend your mind around alternative physics: Schild's Ladder show less

For me this book is structured more like music than like prose -- a set of variations on the theme of time, not a novelistic examination of the topic. Lightman's "hero" is the young Einstein, living in Bern in 1905, working in a patent office but spending all his energies on his theory of relativity. But it isn't Einstein's daytime life that is the subject of this book, though that is touched on in a prologue, three interludes, and an epilogue. Rather, what matters here are thirty chapters showing us thirty different dreams that Einstein has about time. These explore different ways in which time might work, and the ways in which people would react under those assumptions, and they are altogether delightful. Some read like visions, some show more like the premises of sci-fi stories, some like -- dreams. The writing is beautiful, highly concrete about physical detail and more than occasionally witty, both of which help anchor these visions. I don't have the scientific knowledge to appreciate some of what is going on -- some of the different varieties of time, I am told, reflect thinking about relativity and other great matters. But I didn't need it to enjoy this book a great deal. Those who love Calvino's "Invisible Cities" may be particularly entranced. show less

Poetic twists on the paradoxes of time.
The quotidian becomes extraordinary and unsettling.

Time travel needn't involve machines or blue boxes (sorry, Apatt!): Lightman makes it leap off the page and into your mind, leaving you questioning the very root of reality.

Now that I am reading Borges, I assume Lightman was influenced by him (and maybe others), in particular, the short story, Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius

FORMAT

There are about 30 very short chapters (typically, three pages of well-spaced text). Each uses an artist's palette to conjure ordinary scenes of human interaction in a small Swiss Germanic town.

Everyman, everyday, anytown - except that the unique way time operates in each place creates a uniquely alien culture.

It's full of show more dilemmas and paradoxes, and the book itself is a paradox: it's so little and light, but it contains SO much of weight. (There, Apatt, I've squeezed in a TARDIS.)

"Each time is true, but the truths are not the same."

WHO IS THIS FOR?

It's for anyone who likes to play with ideas and appreciates beautiful writing. I know real physicists who have enjoyed this, but you certainly don't need any esoteric knowledge to be transported by it.

POETIC PROSE

I appreciated the lyricism as I read it, but mainly noted down the ideas.

* There are many series of single-sentence, seemingly unrelated, vignettes, especially on page 58-60: "Footprints in snow on a winter island. A boat on the water at night, its lights dim in the distance... A locked cabinet of pills. A leaf on the ground in autumn, red and gold and brown, delicate... A mother on her bed, weeping, the smell of basil in the air... Sunlight, in long angles through the window in late afternoon... A worn book lying on a table beside a dim lamp."

* Sunrise: "Ten minutes past six by the invisible clock on the wall. Minute by minute, new objects gain form."

* "Hypothetically, time might be smooth or rough, prickly or silky, hard or soft. But in this world, the texture of time happens to be sticky."

* "In a world where time is a sense... a sequence of episodes may be quick or may be slow, dim or intense, salty or sweet, causal or without cause, orderly or random." Here, "the time-deaf are unable to speak what they know. For speech needs a sequence of words, spoken in time."

* "Where time stands still... Raindrops hang motionless in the air. Pendulums... float mid-swing. Dogs raise the muzzles in silent howls... The aromas of dates, mangoes, coriander, cumin are suspended in space."

* Time can be measured by things other than clocks: "by the changes in heavenly bodies... by heartbeats... the duration of loneliness."

HOW TO BE HAPPY

This is a book of hypotheses, not solutions. It isn't theological or prescriptive, but its exposition of adaptation and happiness spoke to me.

In most of the worlds, some people have coping strategies that bring happiness, or at least contentment, whereas others are mired in misery. In many cases, that means going to great, even ridiculous, lengths to gain just a little bit more time. In those respects, these worlds are like our own.

In some of the worlds, predestination or inevitability breeds recklessness, "free to do as he pleases, free in a world without freedom."

In another, it's suggested that "a world where time is absolute is a world of consolation" because time is predictable. I'm not sure about that one; people are still unpredictable. Lightman is also very upbeat about a world where people have no memories: every night is the first night, and people live in the present - but they could just as easily be reckless, not being able to learn from experience.

Should we live for the moment, the past, or the future (echoes of A Christmas Carol?)? Would you "rather have an eternity of contentment, even if that eternity were fixed and frozen, like a butterfly, mounted in a case"?

There is no single answer, but I believe we are responsible creating the framework for our own happiness. We may need help (especially if saddled with depression or grim circumstances), but ultimately, peace can only come from within. How one achieves that is trickier - rather like the solution for travelling safely through a black hole that starts, "First, build a time machine..." (or maybe the way to build a time machine is to first find the black hole?).

WEIRD WAYS TIME COULD WORK - Spoilerish?

Some examples of worlds described in the book. For each, the implications of understanding and ignorance of the nature of time is different, and almost all could be the basis for a whole novel:

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

* "Time is like a flow of water, occasionally displaced by a bit of debris, a passing breeze.... People caught in the branching tributaries find themselves suddenly carried to the past."

* A stop/start world where time is "seemingly continuous from a distance but disjointed close up."

* "Time has three dimensions, like space... an object may participate in three perpendicular futures."

* "Time is like the light between two mirrors... a world of countless copies."

* "There is mechanical time and there is body time." One is "rigid and metallic", the other "squirms and wriggles like a bluefish in a bay... Where the two times meet, desperation. Where the two times go their separate ways, contentment."

* "Time flows more slowly the farther from the centre of the earth." Or the converse: "The centre of time" from which "time travels outward in concentric circles", getting faster as one is further away. Where time is a local phenomenon, passing at a different rate, each town has to become a self-sufficient island, and no traveller can ever return home, being "cut off in time, as well as space".

* "Time is visible in all places. A vast scaffold of time, stretching across the universe." And "Time is a visible dimension... one may choose his motion along the axis of time." Which way would you go?

* "Consider a world in which cause and effect are erratic... each act is an island in time." Scientists are helpless, but artists love it.

* "A world without a future... Time is a line that terminates at the present, both in reality and in the mind."

* What about a world where everyone knows it will end in a month? Lightman sees it "a world of equality", but I think that's optimistic. Or where people are like mayflies and live for only a day each.

* What about a world where people live forever? Does infinite time and infinite possibility send you to a frenzy of business, experiencing everything you can imagine, or does it take the pressure off, so you sit around, doing nothing just yet?

* "The passage of time brings increasing order." In spring, people create mess and chaos.

* "Imagine a world in which there is no time. Only images." I can't really get my head round that one, but it's the most beautiful one.

* "Time is not a quantity but a quality... Time exists, but it cannot be measured... Events are triggered by other events, not by time."

* "Time flows not evenly, but fitfully and... as a consequence, people receive fitful glimpses of the future." (Shades of Flashforward.) Here, "Those who have seen the future do not need to take risks, and those who have not yet seen the future wait for their vision without taking risks."

* "Time passes more slowly for people in motion." The converse would have possibilities too.

* There's a backward-flowing time, but Kurt Vonnegut, Martin Amis (and others) have done that in Slaughterhouse Five and Time's Arrow respectively.

Perhaps we should try to ignore time. One world has only just discovered objective measurement of it. The clock "was magical... unbearable... outside natural law" but it could not be ignored, so they worshipped it. "They have been trapped by their own inventiveness and audacity. And they must pay with their lives."

TINY FLAW

The alternative time chapters are interspersed with occasional ones describing Einstein as a young patent clerk, working on this theories of time. I found these an unnecessary and unwelcome distraction.

HOW TO READ IT

You could easily sit and read this book in one short session, but although you would imbibe the beauty and the tangling of time, I wanted to digest and ponder a few worlds at a... time. I might choose differently on a reread, though.

TO MY FRIENDS - yes, you!

This is another wonderful book that I discovered purely because of the enticing reviews of several friends on GR. Thank you.

To my other friends, I redirect the favour by recommending this book to you.

UPDATE re Calvino

A few months after loving this, I read and loved Calvino's Invisible Cities. I now realise how heavily influenced Lightman was: in content, structure, style… every way. Whether you class it as homage or borderline plagiarism is debatable, but it does not detract from my enjoyment of this at the time, and I think Lightman’s book is probably the more accessible of the two, even though it is primarily about physics/time, rather than geography. show less

I always instinctively sought physics and astrophysics popularisation as a form of escapism from the anxiety-inducing ugliness of society. Like Rovelli, Lightman gently dispossessed me of the illusion, intertwining physics concepts with a deep understanding of human nature and of the relationships between people, and between people and the world. And how could be elseway, when the physics described involve the nature of time?
This novel also reminds me of [b:Le città invisibili|1879904|Le città invisibili|Italo Calvino|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1353789244l/1879904._SY75_.jpg|68476] by Italo Calvino, and indeed the structure is the same: innumerable cities with their inescapable and unique show more laws - of physics, of interaction - dreamed up by the protagonist in between conversations with an interlocutor. I wouldn't be surprised if Lightman knew and willingly homaged Calvino's beautiful novel; I'll try and find out. show less

Delightful. My original receipt was still in this book when I pulled it from my shelf - I bought it more than three years ago and only read it just now. I think it's what Calvino's Invisible Cities is trying to be (or is, for people who aren't me); so incredibly imaginative, but gently so. The book is mostly made up of "dreams" of worlds in which time functions differently, with "interludes" about Einstein himself as a young man.

...caressing each moment as an emerald on temporary consignment. How could they know that nothing is temporary, that all will happen again? (9)

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 show more doubted, time cannot be doubted. (37)

Consider a world in which cause and effect are erratic. Sometimes the first precedes the second, sometimes the second the first. Or perhaps cause lies forever in the past while effect in the future, but future and past are entwined. (38)

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. (42)

If time and the passage of events are the same, then time moves barely at all. If time and events are not the same, then it is only the people who barely move. (47)

[Interlude] But there are problems...it is not obvious that knowledge is closeness. For yet another, this time project could be too big for a twenty-six-year-old. (52)

The tragedy of this world is that everyone is alone. For a life in the past cannot be shared in the present. Each person who gets stuck in time gets stuck alone. (65)

Without memory, each night is the first night, each morning is the first morning, each kiss and touch are the first. (82)

In a world where time is a sense, like sight or like taste, a sequence of episodes may be quick or may be slow, dim or intense, salty or sweet, causal or without cause, orderly or random... (115)

In a world where time cannot be measured, there are no clocks, no calendars, no definite appointments. Events are triggered by other events, not by time. (126)

No traveler goes back to his city of origin. (156)
In time, one of the curious sets out to see for himself, leaves his city to explore other cities, becomes a traveler. (156-157)

For time is like the light between two mirrors. Time bounces back and forth, producing an infinite number of images, of melodies, of thoughts. It is a world of countless copies. (165)

In time, the past never happened. But who could know? Who could know that the past is not as solid as this instant... (171) show less

I bought this book from a charity shop because it looks adorable. The irregular page lengths give it a pseudo-vintage look, although in fact the binding is glued not sewn. It’s also small enough to be convenient as a backup book on train journeys, for occasions when you finish the first book you brought with you. Given the frequency of train delays (thanks, Abellio Greater Anglia!) it is important to always have such a backup.

This book is short and consists of vignettes, so I got through it quickly. The conceit is that Einstein is writing up his theory of time and dreaming of many different ways in which time might operate. For instance, a world of erratic cause and effect, one of locally varied time, and one in which time cannot be show more measured. I found these charming and they reminded me of Italo Calvino, possibly even slightly of Borges. The vignettes are pretty but quite slight, though, with none of the layers and mysteries that Borges includes. Overall I was left with a positive but not terribly profound impression. I enjoyed the book as a set of thought experiments, but it isn’t really a novel. There is only the barest plot and Einstein, whose dreams the reader is nominally inhabiting, remains utterly enigmatic. show less

I love science. I also love learning about scientific theories and the scientists who brought them to light. Initially, I thought Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman was a true account of how Einstein came up with his theory of time (relativity). Instead this collection contains fictionalized diary entries (dream journal style) from 1905. Each dream accounts for a different way to view time and is set up almost as if they take place in alternate realities. Maybe all events are fixed and predetermined so time is meaningless. Or perhaps there's a world where the closer you get to the center of a location the slower you move until you are arrested completely. Do you think there's a place where those living in higher altitudes age slower show more than those below? I don't even know if I could handle the world where immortality is a given and so you are forced to live and live and live. In between each of the 'diary' entries, Lightman writes about Einstein processing each of these dreams and honing his eventual theory of relativity. [Bonus: Beautiful pen and ink drawings of Berne scattered throughout.] As I said at the beginning, I started off thinking this was going to be a non-fiction biography of sorts but I think I like this even better. If you're looking for a short little dip into the dimensions of time and how they might look based on your reality then you've hit the jackpot. This is the best kind of sci-fi surprise! 9/10 show less