Evening star., 1940-05-15
Einstein Fears Man Incapable
OfFind;ng Key to Native Logic
Eminent Scientist Makes Rare Public
Appearance at Conclove of Greet Minds
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

BY THOMAS r. HENRY.
With a note of melancholy weari-
ness that has come to an explorer
who has followed forever receding
mirage beyond the frontiers of hui
man understanding, the worlds most
eminent living scientiest voiced the
apparent futility of mans search
for logical foundation for nature.
1t all seems to be a game of
chance, with the dice being thrown
by player who can never be known
within the impenetrable, hypotheti-
cal G, and there can be found no
logic in space and time.
More than quarter century ago
the physico-mathematical specula-
tions of a young Berlin professor
wrecked the long-standing walls of
space and time in the human mind
and revealed fantastic beyond In
which the two were merged in one
all-encompassing reality and dou-
bled upon themselves in the arcs
of a hyper r-dimensional circle.
Beyond DeScf1ptlOn.
Today white-haired Albert Elm
stein, his mind obsessed with the
troubles Of his race and Of the
world, told the eighth American
Science Conference that the bound
aries of his own strange universe
have tumbled now, that there does
not seem to be any reality any
where, that nature seems to be q
game of chance, with its most
fundamental events no more pre-
dictable than the fall of dice. Now,
at least. there does not seem any
possibility of describing it In any
terms within the range of human
experience.
But the erstwhile revolutionist in
the realms of the mind is q wistful
conservative now who cannot force
himself to believe that the mirage
will continue to recede forever.
Some physicists" he said, and
among them myself, cannot believe
that we must abandon, actually and
forever, the idea Of direct repre-
sentation of physical reality In space
and time, or that we must accept
the view that events In nature are
analogous to a game of chance. It
is open to every man to choose
the direction of his striving and
also every man may draw comfort
from Lessing's fine saying that the
search for truth is more precious
than its possession"
A little sadly he told Of his own
long search and striving. Almost
up to the dawn of the goth century
only few bold spectators had ven-
tured to question the laws OF New
ton. They explained perfectly, ex-
cept for one or two puzzling excep-
tions. the mechanics Of the universe.
BY them the motions Of the planets
could be calculated within a split
second in a thousand years.
Failure Long Recognized.
And yet, Prof. Einstein said, there
was something wrong with them
which had long been recognized.
They assumed that there was some
mysterious attraction between mass
es, acting at distance. Analyzed
rigidly, the law of gravity seemed
to assume sort Of mental telepathy
and volition between inert things.
AS scientific experiment and spec
ulation gained momentum toward
the middle of the 18th century more
and more difficulties appeared In the
Newtonian concept. 1t became nee
essarv to assume that mass OF
matter by its very existence caused
change in the structure OF the
space around it which affected the
behavior of every other mass within
that space. This was necessary
especially to explain the phenomena
of light and electro-magnetism. II
was absurd, he pointed out, to think
of an iron filing in some way cogni-
zant of the desires Of = unit elec-
trical particle in coil and acting
In accordance with these desires.
This led to the invention Of the
concept of some ineffable, fantistic
substance filling all space, the ether.
He himself ended this phase OF
thought by making certain bold as
sumptions which would cover. SO
far as was then understood, all
known phenomena, and then found
that it fitted almost perfectly into
q system Of four dimension geometry
invented about the middle Of the
century by the German mathemati-
clan, Riemann.
Space Becomes Transcendant.
Space itself, instead Of ether. be-
comes the pnatrix in which the pres
ence Of masses sets up fields Of force,
or distortions, to which everything
else within the space had to adjust
itself. This explained the phenome-
non Of gravitationAl attraction bet
ter than the laws Of Newton, -
was demonstrated experimentally.
It was, at first, bitter cup for
astronomers, mathematicians and
physicists to swallow. It meant
that the world Of reality was no
longer the world Of the human
senses, with its three dimensions
and infinite space and time.
For . time, It was said, only 10
men In the world ware oompetsnt