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."

Childrens Letters To Einstein

[the_Upsetter]

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

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

Oops... this is the original...

[little1973]

"The significant problems we face cannot be solved
at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." -Albert Einstein

Did you know

[noz]

The article doesn't mention that Einstein was a shocker at simple arithmatic. He had the natural genius to interpret large and complex equations, but was unable to perform simple calculations.

Awesome!

[WookieOnTheRun]

This is a really great article, especially for people like me. I don't understand science at all, but when I get to see the humanity behind the science it definitely peaks my interest, especially the part about Einstein being a peace activist. It never really mentions also that he was a pretty devout Jew and believer in god. He didnt really believe that spirituality and science were neccesarily very far apart. Even cooler was that he was friendly with some of the biggest philosophers at the time!

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 [caltech.edu]. 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.

Einstein's Dreams

[HoldmyCauls]

I just recently bought this book at a book sale. Very good, and the imagery is amazing. It documents Einstein's thoughts in novel form and interjects with meetings he had with his friend Besso, wherein he tried to explain his want for understanding.

What made me cry the most was the realization that Einstein thought very much the way I did. If only people understood how simple -- yet dedicated -- true genius is, fewer people would be afraid of science and technology.

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.

Neat

[dirtsurfer]

My favorite part of the article is where it mentions how Einstein has become a kind of "scientific santa".
It's true, in a way his face has become like the face of science, and the persona of "Einstein" is already mostly myth to most people. This might be a neat insight into how other famous figures in history developed into the over-simplified cultural icons that they are today (genghis khan, siddhartha gautama, moses, alexander the great, joan of arc, etc).

Re:exactly

[Anonymous Coward]

Think about "point of reference" for a moment.

Is it possiable, that Einstein though, viewed or interacted with the world differant from yourself?

If you study his work, you will understand his work.

If you study the way he thought and how to think like him, you will create work beyond his.

There is an NLP term called "modeling", which is an attempt at taking how a person acts, what they preceive, how they think and applying it on yourself for positive results.

But the "key" to "modeling", is that you HAVE TO KNOW the person, you have to know who they are and how they think. think about it.

J

Re:"unknown"? Light article...

[Asprin]

I always loved that quote, but when I was studying E&M and QM in college in the late 80's, I coined my own response:

"God does not play dice." - Einstein

"God may or may not play dice, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't use a pocket calculator." - G. Steve Arnold (me) c.1988

My point was that the universe does not know equations -- it just is. The photons are not sitting there with QED books and Feynman diagrams trying to figure out what they are supposed to be doing next. Every bit of it is accounted for in itself quite automatically and the ultimate goal of the physics we do is not understanding, but only description. Understanding requires you to answer "why?", and that is beyond the scope of science.

Re:Second that emotion!

[AndroidCat]

It looks like it's for a good cause [albert-einstein.net] but it's still a little IP scary:

Welcome to the licensing web site for Albert Einstein(TM) whose beneficiary is The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Through a broad array of licensed partners, Dr. Albert Einstein continues to have one of the most recognized personas in the world. His likeness is used extensively on educational materials, collectibles, timepieces, apparel and posters. Microsoft, Texas Instruments, The Whitney Museum, The United States Department of Treasury and many others license products and services using Dr. Einstein. He regularly appears in advertising campaigns by leading companies such as Apple Computer, Arthur Anderson, NBC, Nestle, Nikon, Pepsi and The Store of Knowledge.

Upon his death, Albert Einstein's estate (administered by the Albert Einstein Archives) was bequeathed to The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The Roger Richman Agency, Inc. in Beverly Hills, California is the exclusive worldwide representative for the University and is responsible for clearance of rights to utilize Einstein in advertising, merchandising and promotions. In addition, the Agency prevents the unauthorized use of the likeness and image of Albert Einstein.

Should I ask if Slashdot has permission to use that picture or not?

Re:"unknown"? Light article...

[Anonymous Coward]

Relativity theory was still very controversial and unconfirmed at the time that the Academy was feeling the need to honor someone who was a truly great theorist.

So, to avoid irritating those who still questioned relativity, they awareded him the prize for another remarkable work on which there was fairly uniform agreement in the physics community.

JD

Doubt that Einstein had a learning disorder

[pogosity]

It's been bothering me the last year the degree to which Einstein is posthumously being labeled as having dome learning disorder. I saw that because the evidence in favor tends to be either anecdotal (and contradictory) or taken out of context.

Last month there was a pretty decent article about the problems with attempting to diagnose dead celebrities with medical/learning problems:

The famous dead yield only murky diagnoses [sunspot.net]

"Something that can't be proved is taken very blithely as fact," said Marlin Thomas, an expert in learning disabilities at Iona College who published an analysis of the claim about Einstein. Thomas became curious when he saw the diagnosis showcased on T-shirts, Web sites, ads and even brochures from the American Academy of Pediatrics."

Unfortunately, the article in question doesn't seem to be available on the internet, but here is the reference:

Thomas, Marlin. "Albert Einstein and LD: An Evaluation of the Evidence." Journal of Learning Disabilities No. 2, Vol. 33 (March 1, 2000): 149.

The conclusion? Well, the author pretty tightly defines "Learning Disability" within the realm of the Diagnostics and Statistics Manual IV(defining mental disorders) and US law (IDEA 1997) so he concludes that "Due to the paucity of evidence supporting the claim that Einstein had a learning disability, and due to the abundance of evidence disputing such a claim, the claim should be withdrawn until convincing evidence supports it."

fa!

[Anonymous Coward]

Pop culture was attracted to Einstein because he played along. He did most of his useful work as a physicist when he was very young. After his theories were finally accepted, he started schmoozing with intellectuals (ask your average history professor about what he knows about relativity or macroeconomics...for a laugh), celebrities, political figures, and the press. Anyone in any of those cliques knows that the best way to promote yourself is to be seen with other famous people. When WWII broke out, he was sought after as the most important scientist around and a Jew to take public stands on political issues, and in doing so, he attracted more attention to himself. He had unique experiences (living in a collapsing Germany before the war) with which to draw his opinions from, but he also was first and foremost a well-funded researcher who never had a job outside of a university or a government patent office. Nevertheless, his more naive musings were taken as gospel as well because that's how "fame" works. There's been a steady stream of short-lived celebrity physicists over the years, many with far less talent, but Einstein had a knack for it. He probably couldn't change many quirky aspects of his personality if he tried, but the "big hair" and whatnot fit in with the public's stereotype, and that's why we have spaced out skateboarders with the odd 9 or 11 ear-piercings on their faces wearing Albert Einstein TM tee shirts.