Alan Lightman is a very well regarded writer. His Einstein’s
Dream is a playful piece of writing which explores Einstein’s relativity idea
by playing with time and demonstrating relativity through clever writing.
This book, although not as whimsical is a valuable warning,
guidebook, and inspiration. Lightman delves into his daily existence and found
that he was caught up in the accelerating pace of modern life. Much of the
acceleration comes from the rapid pace of technological development and he
found himself being caught up in this era of computers, smartphones, instant
messengers etc. He does a bit of research into what these brand new and
invasive habits are doing to our minds and our lives. Needless to say, he found
the changes in our habits lacking and he also experiences what we all do: that
the dictates of this life is forcing our cognitive ability changed, and not for
the better.
Lightman does a bit of storytelling and a bit of information
relating, all to illustrate to us the predicament that we find ourselves in. The
book is well structured and Lightman makes his points carefully and concisely.
The chapters are well written and hits several notes of recognition in me and
drew me in. He stays away from being pedantic and did not prescribe solutions,
leaving the solutions to us the readers to contemplate and discover for
ourselves. He did give us some salient examples. It is a good monograph that I
can refer to in my worst days of being lost to time and be able to recover my
equilibrium and slow my time down. I can use this book to abandon my chronos
temporarily and indulge in my Kairos. (Read the book, it is Chapter 7.)
One note. This is a publication of TED, and this is the
second book from TED that I have read. So far the content has been good but not
in depth, much lik the TED Talks, it serves to keep the reader’s mind engaged
without delving into the subject in a deep manner. It is a good start, I hope
they keep it up.
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