Courtesy of Rutherford Classics.com
Whether or not Albert Einstein gave his brain to science may be a matter of debate, (Click) but it would be fascinating to compare his mind to Donald Trump’s. Einstein’s IQ is 160 while Trump claims his is 156. The number means less to me than how well a person grasps reality. Surprisingly, Einstein and Trump share a common view. Everything is relative.
Recently, Brian Koberlein wrote an article on particle and wave behavior. It reviews some of what Einstein presumed about time and relativity. Specifically, Koberlein asks, “Could the Present Ever Change the Past?” (Click) In the quantum world, apparently, it can. (Click) The event even has a name: Delayed Choice. (Click)
Koberlein explains. When someone forces light particles through two slits in a screen, whether the particles, (photons) emerge on the other side as waves or particles depends on how they exit. Left to their own inclination, the data from photons would form waves because particles from one slit interfere with particles emerging from the other. But, alter the experiment by adding a detector at each slit and the photons behave like particles.
In 1999, long after Einstein’s death in 1955, science upended this “truth.” When a scientist performed the same experiment with a single slit, rather than two, the result was different. By our previous understanding, measuring a photon as it passes through a slit would cause it to emerge as a particle. But, and here, I’m completely lost, if someone destroys that measurement before the photon reaches the other side, then, what emerges is anyone’s guess. It could be a wave or a particle. Destroying data after the photon makes its exit affects the outcome, apparently. One can rightly argue, therefore, that the present alters the past. I go no further with this explanation, or I will drown.
My point is that Donald Trump, with his 156 I Q, seems to understand the principle of shapeshifting well. Everyone knows altering facts after the event is his forte. Consider his recent summit with Vladimir Putin. On that occasion, our leader accepted Putin’s denial that Russia wasn’t involved in our 2016 election. Trump concluded our intelligence community was flawed and couldn’t be trusted. Twenty-four hours later, and back on American soil, he insisted upon the opposite. Our intelligence community was right and Russia may or may not have interfered with our elections.
By his double negatives, we see the full flowering of Trump’s mind. For him, like photons, truth can assume different shapes. What matters is when and where he speaks that truth. Unfortunately, he forgets what Einstein never did. Time is also a critical factor. Chuck Schumer, Senate Democratic leader, who must also be a scientist, was correct in his observation. Trump’s second truth comes “twenty-four hours too late and in the wrong place.” (Click)
If our president had read Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time to the end, he might not be in this black hole.
(First published 7/20/18)
