Einstein's Dreams
Title: Einstein's Dreams
Author: Alan Lightman
List price: $11.95
Amazon price: $11.95
"For the past several months, since the middle of April, he has dreamed many dreams about time. His dreams have taken hold of his research. His dreams have worn him out, exhausted him so that he sometimes cannot tell whether he is awake of asleep. But the dreaming if finished. Out of many possible natures of time, imagined in as many nights, one seems compelling. Not that the others are impossible. The others might exist in other worlds."
This paragraph from its Prologue gives the reader a broad description of what Alan Lightman’s slim and fascinating 1993 novel, Einstein’s Dreams, is about. The novel takes place in 1905, its "now“ transpiring from 06:00 A.M. to 08:04 A.M. on the morning of the day that Albert Einstein, now the world’s favorite genius, has completed his famous Theory of Relativity, with its revolutionary new conception of time. Interwoven into these 2 hours at the office are 30 sleep dreams Einstein has dreamed during the 76 days up to his completion of the Relativity manuscript.
Each dream is a story that posits and illustrates different versions of time. Each dream of time is a telling of a certain working of time and what the ramifications of such a structure would be for humans living within its rules. In the first dream, time is "a circle, bending back on itself. The world repeats itself, precisely, endlessly.“ In the second dream, time is "like a flow of water … Now and then, some cosmic disturbance will cause a rivulet of time to turn away from the mainstream, to make connection backstream … people caught in the branching tributary find themselves suddenly carried to the past.“ In the third dream, "time has three dimensions, like space. … An object may participate in three perpendicular futures. Each future moves in a different direction of time. Each future is real.“ Lightman‘s lean descriptions of each version of time are poetic.
Time being the topic of this tome, it is interesting to note how the structure of the book deals with organizing it. The first dream occurs on April 14, 1905, the last one on June 28, 1905. Each dream is roughly four pages long. The novel’s "now“ resides in a Prologue and Epilogue, bookends to the dreams. The dreams are intersected three times by Interludes, that recount waking life events in Einstein’s life set vaguely in consensual time, possibly occurring during the months of dreaming. The author, in exploring wild possibilities of alternate time, keeps the reader from falling into chaos by the tight structure of time and space within the novel.
Some of the dreams explore varieties of time. In one dream, "there are two times, mechanical time and there is body time.“ In another, "time is different in each location … Each person who gets stuck in time gets stuck alone.“
Other dreams explore the movement of time. In one dream, "time flows more slowly the farther from the center of earth.“ In another, "time paces forward with exquisite regularity, at precisely the same velocity in every corner of space.“ There are other, fascinating patterns dreamed regarding time’s motion. "Time and the world will end. Everyone knows it.“ "Time stands still.“ "Time flows not evenly but fitfully and, as a consequence, people receive fitful glimpses of the future.“ "Time passes more slowly for people in motion. Thus everyone travels at high velocity, to gain time.“ "Time flows backwards.“ "Time is a line that terminates at the present, both in reality and in the mind.“ "Time is a local phenomenon, it flows at different speeds in different locations.“
Some of Mr. Einstein’s dreams look at the order and sequence of events. "Cause and effect are erratic, sometimes the first precedes the second, sometimes the second the first.“ "Time is a rigid, bonelike structure, extending infintely ahead and behind, fossilizing the future as well as the past. Every action … is completely determined, forever.“ "Time has a shifting past … Events, once happened, lose reality. In time, the past never happened.“
Other dreams experiment with the content of time. "Time does pass, but little happens. If time and the passage of events are the same, then time moves barely at all.“ "The passage of time brings increasing order .. The future is pattern, organization union, intensification; the past, randomness, confusion, disintegration, dissipation.“
Some of the fuzzy-headed genius’s dreams play with how changes in people would impact time. "People have no memories. … A world without memory is a world of the present.“ "People live just one day.“ "Time is a sense. … A sequence of episodes may be quick or may be slow, dim or intense, salty of sweet, causal or without cause, orderly or random, depending on the prior history of the viewer.“ "People live forever. .. The population splits in two: the Laters and the Nows.“ "Time is a Great Clock, precisely measured: People must watch measured that which should not be measured.“
There are dreams that look at time as being something other than the passage of events. "There is no time, only images.“ "Time is not a quantity but a quality … It cannot be measured.“ "Time is a visible dimension.“ "Time is like the light between two mirrors, bouncing back and forth, producing an infinite number of images, a world of countless copies.“
These kaleidescopic permutations of time have a very trippy feel when experienced one after the other. Yet these various time constructs are plausible alternatives to what our consensual reality has constructed as time. But because time is felt to be such a Given, such an unquestionable Reality, to bend and twist it into new configurations feels as disorienting as being in a sleep dream.
These sleep dreams of time are very much reflections of humankind’s goals and aspirations, ideals, and nightmares about how we negotiate being in this time-bound world. These dreams clearly illustrate how our conceptions of time vitally impact how we thinkg and behave, how we live our lives. The beauty of dreams examined is that they can expand our vision, allowing us to step out of constricting boxes of supposition into broader and perhaps less constricting spaces of belief.
The final dream is a beautiful poetic illustration of how most of us view time. "Time flutters and fidgets and hops like birds. Trap one of these birds beneath a bell jar and time stops. The moment is frozen for all people.“ We are so driven to live grasping, acquiring lives that become increasingly dreamless. Dreamfulness is forgotten. The dance of life becomes frozen. Perhaps the reason why Mr. Einstein has become such an iconic, positive figure for 21st century Westerners is that he never became frozen in his thinking, he was always delightfully, humanly Dreamful.