Eulogy for Einstein
“Death signifies nothing… the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.” – Einstein on April 18, 1955, a month before he passed.
Maybe the Buddhists had it right countless decades ago when they asserted that past, present and future were one and chose the Lotus flower, simultaneously bearing flower and fruit at the same time, to symbolise this insight – but Einstein took this leap of faith and turned it observable, explainable, and quantifiable. Belief is easier when one has formulas, sound reasoning, and experiments to prove it. Dropping out of high school, yet earning his PhD and in the same year (1905) publishing 5 papers, 3 of which solved the biggest mysteries of physics of his day – light’s absolute speed, Brownian motion, and the wave-particle duality (fundamental, though not wholly revolutionary, to quantum physics) - and, not satisfied with 3 lives’ work, proceeded to extend again the boundaries of human knowledge in his General Theory ten years later, a breakthrough which his contemporaries estimate would have taken at least multiple decades to arrive at otherwise.
Hard worker, pacifist, astute political observer (for himself), scientist willing to re-examine his most fundamental assumptions. Perhaps he is the best example of proof that the ideas of one person know no limits and can change the world.
p.s. Shout-out to Fermi too – another amazing soul.
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