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Einstein Has Left the Building
Ant writes to tell us of an interesting editorial by John Horgan that is being run by the New York Times asking "will there ever be another Einstein?". The author looks at why Einstein holds such a hallowed position in public opinion and why it will be so hard for any one physicist to attain the same level of fame today. From the article: "The paradoxical answer, Gleick suggested, is that there are so many brilliant physicists alive today that it has become harder for any individual to stand apart from the pack. In other words, our perception of Einstein as a towering figure is, well, relative."
like they used to.
Is it fascism yet?
...they become infinitely massive. Hawking achieved 99.99999% of Einstein's fame and he ended up in a wheelchair from the stress.
Gleick's just jealous (but Wolfram is livid and Feynman is rolling over in his grave).
So is your argument that publishing quality work is a zero sum game? I bet our good friend Einstein would have loved the Internet. Then he'd have blogged about ten good papers per year.
If you don't want crime to pay, let the government run it.
What are you, an immortal vampire or something?
Indeed, and we have such a visionary among us now, with a truly revolutionary view of the universe that will shatter the existing framework:
http://www.timecube.com/
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
Einstein worked at a patent office and stole Smith's Theory of Relativity.
Chuck Norris is an interesting character. Chuck Norris has got a catchy tagline ("Guns don't kill people. Chuck Norris kills people."). Chuck Norris had funny hair. Yet Chuck Norris will never be as famous as Albert Einstein. (I've heard it rumored that Chuck Norris even discovered a new theory of relativity involving multiple universes in which Chuck Norris is even more badass than in this one, but he chose not to reveal it so that Einstein would not be overshadowed by the greatness of Chuck Norris.)
If you don't want crime to pay, let the government run it.
Dude, what the fuck is that? That's craziness. I had to clean my brain with a Q-tip after that, and you know what came out? Brain spooge. Sorry, I have to go, there's blood coming out my nose.
There can't ever be another Einstein. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem holds the trademark and they'd never allow it.
Not that I, by any stretch of imagination or schooling have the right to comment, but, I will.
No, there aren't many who are at the level of Heifitz.
As an aside, your post and profession provide me with an opportunity to ask if you know whether an anecdote I've heard is apocryphal. I was told Fritz Kreisler loved the night life and hated to practise. On occasion he shared the stage with Sergei Rachmaninov who would request Kreisler put in some audition time only to be brushed off. During a joint performance Kreisler lost his place and while improvising leaned into Rachmaninov and asked: "Sergi, where are we?". Rachmaninov was said to have tersely replied: "Carnegie Hall ."
True, or apocryphal? Do you know?
"Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
Cohen
This is not to say that Einstein wasn't insightful
At first, he was a troll.
Then he became interesting.
But he was very underrated.
His theories were all flamebait.
But he was very informative.
And insightful.
Once in a while, funny.
And now he's getting overrated?
Wow!
Because that 4th dimension give you the time to take that square peg over to the belt sander and trim her down.
I agree.
MOD EINSTEIN UP!!!
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
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When I was slogging through my 250 page PhD dissertation, I came across an article about disserations of such famous people as Schroedinger and other physicists of the 1920's - whose entire dissertations were about as long as Section 1.1 of my introduction.
Don't make excuses for yourself: Schroedinger's dissertation was of infinite length until observed.
~Will
sig?
While Hawking is well-known (he'd probably be less famous if he wasn't in a wheelchair)
The wheelchair and speaking device is the tradeoff for sacrificing all that DEX and CHA for the high INT.
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The difference being that Han shot first, Einstein wouldn't have.
That would be World War .5 beta
Next time use wikipedia, or else you will make a fool of yourself.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
Anything they looked at represented a new area of science much the way that any explorer who sailed from Europe a thousand years ago would have been able to claim a new territory. It's much harder now; I've tried!
:-)
I am not sure if that is a story we want to hear or want to avoid. Did you by chance try to be Nepolean also?
Table-ized A.I.
An example of Einstein explaining technical matters to the layperson (paraphrased from memory):
Reporter : Mr Einstein, can you explain to us how the wireless works ?
Einstein : Well, you know the telegraph, it's like a very long cat, it has its tail in New York and its head in Los Angeles. You pull the tail and the head mews.
Reporter : Uh, yes...
Einstein : You see, the wireless works the same except there is no cat.
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
My life is not the same
And Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky is his name, hey!
Nicolai Ivanovich Lobache-
I am never forget the day I am given first original paper to write. It was on analytic and algebraic topology of locally Euclidean metrization of infinitely differentiable Riemannian manifold. Bozhe moi! This I know from nothing. What I'm going to do? But I think of great Lobachevsky and get idea - ahah!
(Well, you know the rest.)
Schrodinger would have both shot and not shot. However it would collapse into one of the outcomes once you watch the movie.
Remember, You are unique...just like everyone else.