Getting Inside Einstein's Head

su-geek writes "'The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible,' Albert Einstein once remarked. Today many scientific documents and personal papers detailing the thoughts and emotions of our favorite physicist will be available at 3PM EST you can access the Einstein Archives Online. Also, Wired is running an article"

Comments

I disagree.

[crashnbur]

I believe the most incomprehensible thing about the world is that a biological organism can know about itself. How did consciousness develop? Mr. Einstein?

Re:I disagree.

[Cali Thalen]

Self-awareness is a mechanism that developed through our brain's ability to rationalize. There is a strong biological tendancy for our brain to attempt (usually quite successfully) to make is 'believe' that whatever we're seeing (feeling, etc.) makes perfect sense and can be explained rationally. It's widely believed that this lead to self-awareness through the simple rationalization that...

Oh, I'm sorry, was that rhetorical?

Re:I disagree.

[ambisinistral]

Not much of an answer.

You have the same problem, only worse, because your "higher-being" is more complex than the consciousness you were so worried about in the first place.

Re:I disagree.

[gwernol]

I believe the most incomprehensible thing about the world is that a biological organism can know about itself. How did consciousness develop? Mr. Einstein?

I would not presume to answer for Einstein, but a good theory that has considerable evidence to support it goes something like this:

Early cognitive abilities developed over millions of years in response to complex environmental stimuli. For example, the ability to recognize shapes as various types of animal (predators and prey) and track them has obvious uses for a hunting species like humans.

Once a large enough set of these mid-level cognitive functions has evolved, a central mechanism for making sense of the potentially conflicting interpretations will also evolve. By this point the human brain is complex enough to support a "virtual machine" running a serial narrative interpreter. Basically consciousness is a mechanism for interpreting the world into a coherent story about the decisions that the subconscious mind is making.

This is a (very simplified) description of the philosopher Daniel Dennett's explanation. The work is all Dennett's, any and all mistakes in the summary are mine :-)

I'd strongly recommend Consciousness Explained, Dennett's much more detailed and evidenced description of all this.

Re:I disagree.

[Gortbusters.org]

Our condition is our reality, and on the subjective level, the physicality of our world is taken for granted. Consciousness means experiencing duality. Everything we know must be processed one way or the other. The philosophers who focused on this duality set limits to what we can know, pointing out that we can in no way know "the world" as it actually is, that we can only know our perceptions of "the world". We take these perceptions to be the material world. The psyche mirrors an image, and the image can only be an abstraction being processed by the organism's nervous system. Without psyche, we do not experience matter. Consciousness may require we experience the duality of psyche and matter; but, theoretically uniting matter and psyche brings together the "physical" and "mental". This objective is consistent with Eastern Mysticism, which does not separate the observer from the observed, the subject from the object, etc.

(Source)

Re:I disagree.

[cpeterso]

Douglas Hofstadter's book "Gödel, Escher, Bach - an Eternal Golden Braid" has some HEAVY examination of (human and machine) consciousness. My favorite metaphor he uses for consciousness is an ant hill. The ant hill has many layers of emergent, recursive properties.

i bet he never

[joeldg]

He did e=mc^2 but I bet he never in his wildest dreams wondered if a site about him would be slashdotted...

The most incomprehensible thing...

[ashkar]

The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that people still write websites without checking browser compatability.

The guy who wrote this site is no fucking Einstein.

Inevitable Theist Onslaught

[limekiller4]

The first creationist who takes this opportunity to reply and infer that Einstein's "god does not play dice" comment is tacit proof of god is going to get beat with a dusty 1200 baud modem.

Re:Inevitable Theist Onslaught

[limekiller4]

An AC (aren't they all?) writes:
"its much easier to whine about being modded down then to post an intelligent comment!!"

If you understood my sig, you would understand it to mean that I prefer dialogue over death-by-disagreement. Karma is just a number. You are not your karma score. Get over it.

When you can post your thoughts without considering how it will affect your karma score you will become a benefit to the Slashdot community.

Re:Inevitable Theist Onslaught

[JonnyElvis42]

The first creationist who takes this opportunity to reply and infer that Einstein's "god does not play dice" comment is tacit proof of god is going to get beat with a dusty 1200 baud modem.

Damnit! I knew there was a better way to clean off a dusty modem than with a rag. Now why didn't I think of that, and why did you never tell me?
As for "god does not play dice" being tacit proof of God, heck, that's not even tacit proof of dice.

Re:Inevitable Theist Onslaught

[Telastyn]

A better argument than physical abuse would probably be Hawking's "Not only does God definitely play dice, but He sometimes confuses us by throwing them where they can't be seen." comment (http://www.hawking.org.uk/lectures/dice.html)

Though certainly physical abuse is a satisfying alternative if that doesn't help.

Re:Inevitable Theist Onslaught

[Anonymous Coward]

"It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it." -- Albert Einstein, 24 March 1954

You know, sometimes you people are your own worst enemies.

Handwriting

[IpsissimusMarr]

Makes me feel as though I may have a chance at this science thing after all. I thought scientists had meticulous handwriting (you know, to differenciate themselves from medical doctors). But seeing Einstein's handwriting is pretty much incomprehensible makes me think my scribble could just make take me into the big time. heh.

Re:Handwriting

[jdh-22]

Funny you mention that, but his handwriting does tell something about him, and you. My grandmother has been an handwriting anyalist for almost 40 years now, and I have been learning for a couple.

Einstien's handwriting is very interesting. Notice how he dots his i's and how small his writing is. This means that he has an exceptional eye for detail, and he has an unreal imgination. A quailty many scientists poses.

So your scribble can mean many different things. Might wanna check out The Complete Idiot's Guide to Handwriting Analysis which is a very good book to get started with.

Re:Handwriting

[Idarubicin]

Einstien's handwriting is very interesting. Notice how he dots his i's and how small his writing is. This means that he has an exceptional eye for detail, and he has an unreal imgination.

Hm. Look at his small handwriting and dotted i's, I conclude that he had better than average eyesight, and a primary school teacher who rapped his knuckles with a ruler every time he forgot to dot an i or cross a t.

I conclude that he had an eye for detail and a healthy imagination based on what's in his writing, not how the letters are formed.

Re:Handwriting

[jpkunst]

Einstien's handwriting is very interesting. Notice how he dots his i's and how small his writing is. This means that he has an exceptional eye for detail, and he has an unreal imgination.

I don't think anyone would draw this sort of conclusions from his handwriting if they didn't know beforehand that it was Einstein's. Handwriting analysis is about as scientific as astrology if you ask me. See also this article in the Skeptic's Dictionary.

JP

Ask Slashdot?

[dogfart]

While I would applaud adding Dr. Einstein to the illustrious list of "Ask Slashdot" contributors, this is difficult to do for someone who has been dead 48 years

Better luck with the "cowboy neal" option

A More Dignified Einstein?

[__aagmrb7289]

The Wired article mentions that the site attempts to redirect the "mad scientist" image of poor Mr. Einstein. But geesh, look at the picture on the first page! Seems to me like a exuberant kid trying to "pose for the camera", but is ready to break out laughing at any moment...

Re:A More Dignified Einstein?

[DaveAtFraud]

Once you can accept the universe as being something expanding into an infinite nothing which is something, wearing stripes with plaid is easy.

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.

--Einstein

The man had a real sense of humor.

I Really Need Some Sleep...

[LordYUK]

Because even though I read the title right, my brain decided that it should really be "Getting Head Inside Einsteins" (which for those of you who dont have one, is a bagel shop)...

Too bad, I would have loved to grab one on the way home... Bagel, that is...

Perverts.

=)

Re:hmmm..

[JonnyElvis42]

Is anyone actually going to post ontopic to this story?

I'm sorry, but what does "on topic" mean again? I think I missed the article that defined that.

special relativity...wow

[selderrr]

You gotta give it to the man for taking up challenges : as if this relativity stuff isn't complicated enough, he even wrote it in german !

the other archives

[AbdullahHaydar]

the other archives

On Physics

[Mtn_Dewd]

As I continue to inflict masochistic physics damage against myself in my conquest of knowledge, I can't help but pull myself away from my studies and wonder: If this is this difficult for me to even comprehend/grasp (and I'm certain that I'm probably only learning it at a base level), how the hell does one create and come up with this stuff? I'm truly amazed by men like Einstein, and I have such a humbled respect for physicists, who though I can't understand why they do it to themselves, live and think in a different plane than so many people even realize exists.

Re:On Physics

[kfg]

Simply because it's what we do. We don't have much of what you could call "choice" in the matter, and as such it isn't "doing it to ourselves."

Why on earth do some people just code Java all day, and love it? Beats the hell out of me, but it's what makes them tick. More power to them, and they can have it.

And, to me at least, Relativity is obvious, but Java is about as arcane as it gets.

Please note which one is natural law and which is man made.

KFG

Re:On Physics

[Mr. McGibby]

Or, why don't they?

The universe is full of strange, wonderful and complex things. But the only way that human knowledge is going to progress is if the "difficult to learn" stuff is made "easy to learn" through innovative explanations, or teaching.

I personally believe that the reason that innovation in science comes is spurts is because older scientist's heads are filled with complex understanding of ideas. When these ideas are explained to a new generation, simpler and simpler ways of looking at things are created to explain the idea. The students thus gain a "simple understanding" of the same ideas. And are thus better able to go beyond those ideas.

I don't think there is very much that is "inherently" difficult to learn. Relativity is becoming easier and easier for people to understand, not because it has become simpler, but because millions of teachers have come up with easy ways to explain it.

Re:On Physics

[johnjay]

If you like that type of stuff you might consider reading David Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature (Book 1 is all I've read). Hume methodically, scientifically, and ruthlessly tears down the relation between cause and effect that we human beings are almost hard-wired to believe in. It's a great read for scientists, since they are constantly trying to infer causes from effects.

Also, after nearly creating a cold, disjointed world of skepticism, he ends by saying he's going to pop of to the pub, have a smoke and play some backgammon to reassure himself of the importance of real life. It's a nice human touch after such rigorous brilliance.

And, if you want to feel humble, he wrote this revolutionary book in his early 20s. He made much better use of his 20s than I've made of mine.

The Meaning Of Relativity

[reverseengineer]

I made a beeline for The Stafford Lectures, a series of lectures he gave at Princeton in 1921- which were later collected, translated, and published under the title "The Meaning of Relativity," a copy of which I happen to have. It was fascinating to look at the original notes that eventually would become the text of a book I own. It was even more fascinating that the equations were now the most comprehensible part of the text, as I don't understand much German (pitifully little considering my heritage), and even if I did, Einstein wrote his notes in a messy cursive scrawl with many scratch-outs and replaced passages. Still, it's a very interesting glimpse into Einstein's thought processes.

Nah

[threephaseboy]

Its probably a dupe from 48+ years ago.

Could This Wait Till Next Week?

[LordYUK]

I don't have time to ponder relativity...

I'm still trying to figure out if there's really a spoon...

The world is simple when one observation is made

[HarveyBirdman]

People are idiots.

Everything else can pretty much be derived from that.

Sorry. Pissy mood today. Monday and all that.

No one writes anymore

[Vinnie_333]

It's been a long time since I've written anything out by hand. I wonder what a collection like this in the futre about a current well known figure would look like? "The Collected E-Mails of George W Bush"

Re:No one writes anymore

[bigbadbuccidaddy]

Dick,
Where are you hiding the fake poop?
-GWB

Einstein never read Slashdot

[Concerned Onlooker]

I doubt he would have found the world so comprehensible if he had.

Not only does God play dice, he ....

[burgburgburg]

uses 12 sided dice and now I owe him $15,000 and a Chrysler LeBaron.

The Einstein File

[zaneIO]

From 1933 until 1955, the Federal Bureau of Investigation compiled a 2,000-page file on Albert Einstein, hoping to "destroy" his immense stature by linking him to Soviet espionage activities. At one point, not long before the scientist's death, a attempt was made to have him deported. This campaign is responsible in large part for Einstein's exclusion from the Manhattan Project, and is docemented in the book Fred Jerome's The Einstein File. Einstein's .

Arghh!

[einstein]

Get Out of My Head!!

Best way to get into his head...

[EverDense]

The Best way to get into someone's head is with a powerdrill.

I believe he applied the math.

[MickLinux]

As I remember, there were irregularities in Mercury's orbit. He then adjusted the space-time equations to account for the gravitational field of the Sun, and proposed it as a theorem.

So that would imply to me that he applied the math. But first he had to come up with a model: that the irregularities were in fact regularities of the true space-time system.

He then had to decide what his limits were likely to be, and then come up with the new mathematical model. Finally, he had to check his work.

None of it was easy. None of it is easy today. But I think it was understandable for an incredibly smart person with enough time on his hands. He had both, and so he came up with it.

I think your wonderment is excellent, and you are right to wonder. But I could honestly ask the same about Linus Torvaldas' invention Linux (or semiinvention: I know he didn't do it *all* himself, neither did Einstein who had Newton's calculus to help him).

The bigger question to me is "what made him identify that as a productive field for his efforts?"