12 - That Would Work

In our thought laboratory we can postulate that space and time began with the Big Bang. One model for this beginning would be the simplest of geometric elements known as the dimensionless point. Even though this point is beyond our understanding by observation or application of physical laws it doesn't necessarily follow that it would play no role in the essential nature of matter.

The third nature of matter may simply be that all matter remains superimposed within this point and the observation of this nature is likewise dependent on the manner of our observation.

Instantaneous interaction over distance may be explained by eliminating the distance, thereby making instantaneous effects less spooky and returning Prime Directive #2 to grace.

11 - The Germinal Moment

In the Small World all matter will exhibit two distinct natures. Electrons can behave as waves or particles, light can too, depending on how they are observed. Einstein was literally the father of Small Science but he didn't like the way the kids turned out. Is there another nature of matter that would provide a perspective from which all the family could get along?

In Dr. Stephen Hawking's lecture The Beginning of Time he stated that at the germinal moment "...all matter in the universe would have been on top of itself." He followed by saying that contemplating what proceeded the Big Bang as having "no observational consequence."

10 - The Big Idea

Before Galileo confirmed that Copernicus was correct, that planets did orbit the Sun instead of the other way around, the paths that planets took across the heavens defied all logic. This change in perspective changed wandering squiggles into perfect ellipses. Einstein had accomplished similar leaps of insight in his career and he believed that yet unknown variables would unite Small Science with the Universe in which he believed.

9 - Entanglement

Believers in Small Science are true believers. Undaunted by Dr. Einstein's thought experiment they repeated in in the laboratory and found that the impossible turned out to be possible. Einstein's grenade was not only a dud, but it opened fascinating new doors for Small Science. The more Eisenstein lamented Small Science the more he became entangled in it.

8 - Prime Violation #2

Dr. Einstein saw that Small Science proponents were not phased by the fact that their Universe was so unpredictable. His only recourse was to toss a scientific grenade that would surely wake them up. In his most elegant thought experiment of all he described two electrons traveling though space that collide but continue on modified courses that carry them toward opposite reaches of the Universe. Billions of years later one of the electrons passes through a physics laboratory somewhere in the high desert of New Mexico where an instrument measures its speed. Instantaneously, in a galaxy far far away, the other electron changes direction in compliance with Small Science.

7 - Prime Violation #1

Small Science bothered Dr. Einstein very much because in the Small World knowledge of what a particle was doing eliminated the possibility of knowing where it was doing it. More importantly to Dr. Einstein, thought experiments in Small Science simply do not produce correct results. In the Small World physics ceases to exist, as practiced by the greatest physicist of all time, and the mathematics of probability takes its place.

6 - Prime Directive #2

Dr. Albert Einstein conceived of many things beyond common comprehension, but his starting premises were always simple. One premise that he held especially dear was that effects are not instantaneous. Any cause is separated from its effect by some passage of time, however small. Gravity, as described by Dr. Isaac Newton, violated this premise because it required Earth's pull on apples to be instantaneous. Einstein spent the greater part of his career proving that this was incorrect, his proof was called General Relativity.

5 - Prime Directive #1

Dr. Einstein believed in thought experiments -- that physics problems can be solved though the logical application of ideas. This concept underlies the premise that the Universe is a logical place and that if any cause were fully understood that the the effect could be predicted exactly. On large scales, larger than the electron, this premise is true. On small scales, however, it appears to be false. Small Science became known as Quantum Mechanics and Einstein concluded that it must be incomplete.

4 - Something Special

The speed of light is special, it is the only part of our relative world that is self defined. The light source and the observer can be moving wildly about relative to each other but the speed of light between them is always the same. Time and space on the other hand are elastic and they change as needed to protect the sovereignty of light. Light is different from everything else in the relative world, a messenger from the absolute. The message is "there is an absolute."

3 - Light

A scientific experiment caught Albert Einsteins's attention for reasons that escaped everyone else. Two scientists announced that an elegantly planned experiment had failed to find the medium in which light waves travel. What Albert grasped, however, was that the experiment had discovered something miraculous - an absolute in an otherwise relative world.

2 - Relativity

We live in a relative universe. No place in this universe can be located in absolute terms. When someone asks us for directions to our house we have to know where they are starting from. When someone tells us to meet them at the North Pole at 10 AM we will be at a loss unless they include a time zone.

We take for granted the reference frames in which we live. We have nicely organized our space into coordinates such as latitude, longitude and our time into days, hours, minutes and seconds. Most of us view these artifacts as absolutes and never question the relative nature of things.

A young, wildly independent thinker, however, saw this as an apple cart begging to be tipped.

1 - Universe

Dr. Albert Einstein was a scientist with a razor intellect but he was also a philosopher that believed that the Universe was governed by a simple set of prime directives. He experienced unprecedented scientific success in cracking natures most deeply encrypted codes by assuming that those directives were inviolable.

When a new branch of physics challenged those prime directives, it shook him to his very core, and gave him generous cause to lament.

He spent many years searching for the missing key that would realign his philosophy with the Universe's seemingly quirky behavior.

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