Einstein Unveiled

John_Renne writes "One of the most well known scientists in the near history is Albert Einstein. Pictures of him can be found on allmost everything varying from lunchboxes to t-shirts and cartoons. On the other hand there's little knowledge of who Einstein really was and the human being behind the genius. This article tries to create a view of the inner Einstein. A nice read for everyone interested in the person inside the phenomenon."

Comments

Childrens Letters To Einstein

[the_Upsetter]

A great amount of insight can be found in what children wrote to the man ...

Some Highlights...

Dear Dr. Einstein,

I am a pupil in the sixth grade at Westview School. We have been talking about animals and plants in Science. There are a few children in our room that do not understand why people are classed as animals. I would appreciate it very much if you would please answer this and explain to me why people are classed as animals.

Thanking you,
Sincerely,
Carol
November 12, 1952

The very thoughtful answer...

Dear Children:

We should not ask "What is an animal" but "what sort of thing do we call an animal?" Well, we call something an animal which has certain characteristics: it takes nourishment, it descends from parents similar to itself, it grows, it moves by itself, it dies if its time has run out. That's why we call the worms, the chicken, the dog, the monkey an animal. What about us humans? Think about it in the above mentioned way and then decide for yourselves whether it is a natural thing to regard ourselves as animals.

With kind regards,
Albert Einstein
January 17, 1953

Little known about Einstein ??

[tmark]

On the other hand there's little knowledge of who Einstein really was and the human being behind the genius.

Please. As far as scientists go, there are none whose personality has been more revealed and documented than Einstein - except now, maybe John Nash. Lots of lay people know at least something about Einstein's personality; he's probably the only scientist ever who has been adopted by the media. By contrast, see if the lay people around you know anything about the personalities/loves/quirks of Darwin, Newton, Bohr or Freud.

Einstein on a bicycle

[MacAndrew]

I went to grade school across the street from Cal Tech, and it was said that Einstein was often seen bicycling around on his 3-speed. Something about that lack of pretense has always charmed me, and I would think he is already one of the most human famous scientists. He spent much of the last 20 years of his life concerned with averting nuclear war.

Einstein on a bicycle. And he didn't wear a helmet.

Re:LSD?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, not LSD. It's called autism. Albert Einstien was a high-functioning autistic savant. A common feature of the highly autistic mind is thought processes in music, sensations, pictures, written words, etc. Some autistics can also see music, taste sounds, hear pictures and the like... the sensors can become crosswired and overloaded.

I perfectly understand what he means by finding translating his ideas into language as being the hardest part, as I'm in much the same position. I don't function in relation to words in the same way as neurotypical individuals do; my comprehension of meaning is far more abstract compared with what is normal; I don't as much conform my thinking to the subtlties and conotations (sp?) of the meanings of words used to describe or convey concepts.
When an idea is in my mind, I can easily process relatively complicated concepts. But when I try to commit them to the written word, I run into difficulties because I am 'out of sync' with the standardised influences and meanings which are socially attached to words, and therefore the ideas which are conveyed with them.

What Einstein WASN'T a genius at...

[Theovon]

One thing about Einstein that is often omitted is what he was intellectually bad at. Sure, we know he wasn't good at math, but an even more important point was that he couldn't memorize details to save his life. I remember reading a story about how he called the telephone operator from a pay phone to ask what his phone number and address were -- he couldn't remember them.

Maybe that is a slight exaggeration, but not much of one, because this isn't unheard of. The crux of this boils down to this: One has only a certain amount of cognitive processing power; if the majority is dedicated to one particular type of reasoning, then others will suffer.

So Einstein, as we know, was immensely brilliant at dealing with abstract ideas, but at the same time, he was also miserable at dealing with concrete things, like memorizing a bit of text or some numbers, or for that matter, being able to take in the full sensory experience of a walk in the park, without distraction from other ideas in his head.

I do believe that he was certainly of above average intelligence, but it's important to realize that his total brainpower may not have been AS FAR beyond us as we are taught. As far as he was greater than us in abstract reasoning, he was equally lousy at many of the cognitive things that most people take for granted.

In fact, Einstein was not a fluke or a freak of nature. There are other people like him in the world. They are rare, but they are otherwise normal humans. Rather than being brilliant at Physics, many are brilliant socially or amazing at understanding the thoughts and motivations of other people. Some of them are geeks.