Some thoughts on… The General Theory
The President spoke before Congress this week and brought forward one of the most sweeping agendas for domestic and international change seen since FDR. The address outlined transformations in economic stimulus, energy dependence, healthcare reform, and education investment. The speech was as grand as the program it outlined, highlighting the country’s need to achieve against multiple dimensions in order to succeed ten years from now. (Narcissistically, the programs reflect many of the goals highlighted in the blog Raising Expectations.
To carry off the ambitious endeavor, the projected budget would create a historic level of deficit this year (greater than $1.6 trillion). But does this make sense? Should we be choosing a single area of investment where we know we can win, rather than trying to achieve against so many agendas?
By creating new centers of gravity in areas of future economic importance, Obama believes that he can attract attention to these programs and accelerate change. He is betting these compelling harbors will be magnets to steer the huge freighter of the US economy away from the current rocky coastline. The massive investments in healthcare, energy dependence and education are long-term docks. As he describes in his speech
Using the analogy of Newton’s laws of gravity – people, institutions, and objects in space are attracted to areas of greater mass. Increasing the density of a planet will result in greater gravitational pull that can change the course of surrounding objects. By creating several immense bodies of investment rather than just one, Obama is creating a constellation of entities to guide the economy into the future.
On TV, another popular show – Lost – is also playing with the laws of gravity. In summary, the show follows the story of a plane-load of survivors that crash on a tropical island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The first seasons described the back-stories of the individuals and how they got lost on the desert island. Last year (Season 5), the show turned the arc to discuss how the survivors would be found.
There are too many plot-lines to describe in a few sentences, but one of the most interesting is around the nature of the island. Initially, we were led to believe that this was an island with special powers, at the end of last season we suspect that the island might be a time machine. I am now convinced that the island actually sits outside of the event window of a large structural mass – essentially a black hole – located deep in the Earth under the island.
Einstein refined Newton’s theory by demonstrating that gravity is a warping of space-time around objects. The reason that large objects attract other objects is because they essentially “fall” through space-time. As objects move toward large gravitational bodies, time actually slows down. All of us warp space-time, but given our relatively small mass compared to the Earth or the sun, the distortion of time is infinitesimal.
Albert proved that one could time travel to the future by visiting a large gravitational mass. By getting close enough to a large gravitation force, or by accelerating to a sufficiently high speed, we can slow down our own time and then visit the future by returning to the original place we started. This is what is happening to the characters in the show. Interestingly, one of the few things that can freely move in and out from an event window is what Einstein called the only “constant” in the universe – the speed of light. (And this is really for Lost aficionados – the constant is represented by Desmond in the show). We’ll discuss skipping through time-space more in an upcoming blog on the Special Theory of Relativity.
The practical implication for us of Obama’s big investments in the economy is to follow his lead on gravitational direction. Save for the future, invest in education, and reduce our carbon footprint. Like the characters in Lost we may be in the future sooner than we think.
Writer’s Note: OK, this posting is significantly outside my knowledge zone, because I am not even close to a student of Physics. But I have been reading up a little on Relativity and corrections/ comments are always welcome.
March 1, 2009
To carry off the ambitious endeavor, the projected budget would create a historic level of deficit this year (greater than $1.6 trillion). But does this make sense? Should we be choosing a single area of investment where we know we can win, rather than trying to achieve against so many agendas?
By creating new centers of gravity in areas of future economic importance, Obama believes that he can attract attention to these programs and accelerate change. He is betting these compelling harbors will be magnets to steer the huge freighter of the US economy away from the current rocky coastline. The massive investments in healthcare, energy dependence and education are long-term docks. As he describes in his speech
“We have lived through an era where too often, short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity; where we failed to look beyond the next payment, the next quarter, or the next election.”
Using the analogy of Newton’s laws of gravity – people, institutions, and objects in space are attracted to areas of greater mass. Increasing the density of a planet will result in greater gravitational pull that can change the course of surrounding objects. By creating several immense bodies of investment rather than just one, Obama is creating a constellation of entities to guide the economy into the future.
On TV, another popular show – Lost – is also playing with the laws of gravity. In summary, the show follows the story of a plane-load of survivors that crash on a tropical island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The first seasons described the back-stories of the individuals and how they got lost on the desert island. Last year (Season 5), the show turned the arc to discuss how the survivors would be found.
There are too many plot-lines to describe in a few sentences, but one of the most interesting is around the nature of the island. Initially, we were led to believe that this was an island with special powers, at the end of last season we suspect that the island might be a time machine. I am now convinced that the island actually sits outside of the event window of a large structural mass – essentially a black hole – located deep in the Earth under the island.
Einstein refined Newton’s theory by demonstrating that gravity is a warping of space-time around objects. The reason that large objects attract other objects is because they essentially “fall” through space-time. As objects move toward large gravitational bodies, time actually slows down. All of us warp space-time, but given our relatively small mass compared to the Earth or the sun, the distortion of time is infinitesimal.
Albert proved that one could time travel to the future by visiting a large gravitational mass. By getting close enough to a large gravitation force, or by accelerating to a sufficiently high speed, we can slow down our own time and then visit the future by returning to the original place we started. This is what is happening to the characters in the show. Interestingly, one of the few things that can freely move in and out from an event window is what Einstein called the only “constant” in the universe – the speed of light. (And this is really for Lost aficionados – the constant is represented by Desmond in the show). We’ll discuss skipping through time-space more in an upcoming blog on the Special Theory of Relativity.
The practical implication for us of Obama’s big investments in the economy is to follow his lead on gravitational direction. Save for the future, invest in education, and reduce our carbon footprint. Like the characters in Lost we may be in the future sooner than we think.
Writer’s Note: OK, this posting is significantly outside my knowledge zone, because I am not even close to a student of Physics. But I have been reading up a little on Relativity and corrections/ comments are always welcome.
March 1, 2009