AN APOLOGY TO EINSTEIN
Good judgement comes from experience,
and experience comes from poor judgement.
ThreadsMy apologies to Albert Einstein for any inaccuracies regarding him in the earlier editions of this series. My wife, Sherry, recently found a book in which he expresses his displeasure at being misquoted and used by others. In it, he distinguishes his true quotes from the false ones.
Einstein's Autobiographical Notes are written both in German and English. In them he states why he developed and proposed relativity. These notes illuminate areas that have been darkened and misused by others. Unfortunately, I have accepted some of the written works that are guilty of such things, and subsequently have contributed to the confusion by my acceptance of them.
Einstein developed relativity in an attempt to discover what could be discovered based upon what was known at that time. He was very objective and was not attempting to favor either side in the debate as to whether or not an ether of some sort existed. He began at the beginning and worked from there forward, building a firm foundation and allowing his curiosity to dictate his course, as opposed falling victim to any possible prejudices. His conclusions were based upon the evidence and the chips fell where they would most logically fall. Unfortunately, many people interpreted his work as they wished to see it.
Nether theory is based upon more evidence than Einstein had available, and was also developed without prejudice, letting the logic dictate rather than any supposed prejudices. Suprisingly, its conclusions are more like those of relativity than unlike those of relativity. Had Einstein understood a particularly critical fact about the electron, a "discovery" which came later, he would probably have developed a theory essentially identical to this one.
In re-examining both special and general relativity, I found that Einstein had done a remarkable job with what little he had as input. Most of the equations in relativity are valid even in light of what we found as we developed nether theory.
It is my belief that we have been better off with relativity than not, even with its fallacies. Einstein has been a positive force in the evolution of our consciousness and is to be admired as such.
We'll never make the future what we want it
unless we analyze what happened in the past.
Gulf Stream
Book One - Overview