The Polish edition of‘Eureka’ by Edgar Allan Poe [1809-1849], has just been published. This cosmological and mystical treatise has gained extraordinary fame, especially in scientific circles. It is believed that, among other things, it prophetically announces great scientific discoveries that physicists and astro-physicists made several dozen years later. The website https://baltimorepostexaminer.com/edgar-allan-poe-albert-einstein-greatest-thinker-time/2013/12/28 mentions twenty amazing intuitions such as 'Big Bang', the expanding universe, etc. French astrophysicist Jean-Pierre Luminet speaks, for example, of a "dazzling intuition" explaining the finite age of stars, the so-called 'dark holes', the famous phenomenon 'why is it dark at night' (see https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_(Poe) )... Poe is also credited with the concepts of receding galaxies, the pulsating Universe, and some principles of non-Euclidean geometry. Italian astrophysicist A. Cappi wrote an often-quoted scientific article in which he analyzes these extraordinary intuitions. E.A.Poe - a would-be fighter of the « November 1831 Polish Uprising » (the uprising collapsed before he could come to Poland) - is also considered one of the forerunners of the theory of evolution. The author himself - today having the status of something like an American "prophet" - did not present his work as a scientific work but as a "prose poem" (however, some of his assumptions turned out to be false). After it was published in the US, "Eureka" received a lot of criticism. The treatise was described as the consequence of mental illness, depression, life's disappointments, and the author was depicted as a talented but still a freak, as a drunkard and a drug addict, and was accused of heresy and blasphemy! The edition sold very poorly (well, no one is a prophet in his own country). The situation began to change in 1859 when the poet Charles Baudelaire published a French translation of the poem in a prestigious magazine. And since in Europe Poe began to be considered a brilliant, prophetic poet and writer, so in the USA and around the world! "Eureka", despite its mystical tone, was considered a visionary work (which in turn aroused concern in Russia, where it was officially banned in 1871. But the Russian translation was published in 1912, more than a century before the Polish one!).
Asked in 1933 to give his opinion on 'Eureka', famous scientist Albert Einstein wrote a rather friendly, favourable although vague review. Apparently he wanted to get away with a few cheap compliments (at that time, his migration to the USA was still relatively new and his English was rather poor):I have studied the work « Eureka » in part, but I have no hope to be able to finish this study in the near future... is ... a very beautiful achievement of an extraordinary independent mind… For an appreciation of the artistic value of this work, I cannot find the time in the near future in spite of all the attraction which emanates from this wonderful man ... (He also called Poe ‘a master’ and ‘a creative son of America’). However, he negatively assessed Poe's considerations and cosmogony as corresponding to the limited state of knowledge of the era (which, as the author of the article http://worldofpoe.blogspot.com/2012/01/science-true-daughter-of-old-time-thou.html notes, is this is somewhat ironic because E.A.Poe anticipated some of the concepts later attributed to Einstein). In 1940, he was asked to review again. In June this year, he wrote that, yes, he had read "Eureka" several years ago, but that he remembered little about it except that it was "valued more from the artistic than from the scientific standpoint". But two months later, he suddenly changed his tone: he stated that after looking through a copy of"Eureka" he realized that he had made a mistake and that he had never read it before! And now he found this book "a bad disappointment" ! He even went so far as to call Poe a "pathological personality". In fact, he did not hide his feelings of reluctance and hostility towards Poe and "Eureka"!!! What happened ??? The author of the article https://baltimorepostexaminer.com/edgar-allan-poe-albert-einstein-greatest-thinker-time/2013/12/28 explains it this way:« There cannot be any doubt that in 1940 Einstein also discovered the brilliant scientific ideas of Poe, which must have come as an intense shock. Because these were not only ideas that anticipated his own theories about the velocity of light, space-time and matter-energy, but also ideas that he had opposed strongly for many years, like the dynamic universe and the ‘Big Bang’. Reading ‘Eureka’ probably also unpleasantly reminded Einstein of his clashes with Friedmann and Lemaître, to whom he had to give in eventually » (Russian scientist A. Friedmann and the Belgian physicist Rev. Canon G. Lemaître are considered the fathers of the 'Big Bang' theory. Both did not hide their fascination with "Eureka" and drew their inspiration from it. Well, and they were right in the dispute with Einstein! The two scientists followed the American writer’s intuition – and were not disappointed ! Does this imply that those studying physics or astrophysics should also read poetry? Anyway, “Big bang” was initially the subject of ridicule by other scientists. This name was invented by one of the main opponents of the theory of the expansion of the universe who made fun of it on a BBC program). And the author of the article http://worldofpoe.blogspot.com/2012/01/science-true-daughter-of-old-time-thou.html writes:It is also undoubtedly true that "Eureka's" strong religiosity was anathema to the strictly materialist mind of the famed physicist ... From Einstein's comments, I found myself wondering if he had actually even studied "Eureka" thoroughly, and it is clear that whatever he did read rather baffled him. As heretical as it may be to suggest the fabled genius had his limitations, I suspect "Eureka" so irritated him simply because he failed to understand it.
However, I think the reason for Einstein's anger was something else. For the scientist, it was rather an outrage that a man of letters, a poet, a writer - therefore a dilettante (!) - have the nerve to interfere in his private « scientific garden » where he cultivates his « beds » with the help of sophisticated mathematical tools... And this man of letters dared to express himself on subjects reserved for elite specialists ! An ignoramus dares to have his own opinion about them! In fact, he may even, despite everything, be right!!! It was a real humiliation for the great scientist... Oh no, I think prof.A.Einstein probably understood"Eureka" quite well... If he didn't get/understand something - or didn't want to admit it - it was probably that a great poet, a mystic, with his intuition, can better understand the secrets of nature, the universe, and penetrate them more easily than scientists (and that was what was really unbearable for him). Just as it was, for example, in Ancient Greece (it is still true!). Some analogous extraordinary intuitions about 'Big Bang'’, the theory of evolution, etc. can be found in another 'prose poem' written more or less in a similar era, although it seems to be a few years earlier, in 'Genesis from the Spirit' of the brilliant dilettante Juliusz Słowacki. I wrote about it earlier, for example, here: https://www.salon24.pl/u/edalward/1334289,big-bang-according-to-the-19th-century-polish-poet-j-slowacki .
Is it a coincidence that it was easier to convince astronomers than physicists to deeply interpret"Eureka" from professional point of view (and"Genesis from the Spirit" as well)? Is it true what the blogger « wugo » claims on salon24.pl forum, namely that: « today's physics is complete mathematical nonsense…. Invents/guesses/adapts a mathematical model completely detached from physical reality... » (see: https://www.salon24.pl/u/doku/1364489,nowa-fizyka#comment-25918414 ). If an apple fell on a modern physicist's head (as it once happened to Newton), it is not certain that he would draw any interesting conclusions from it (unless the apple had a tag attached to it, e.g. with some differential equation, preferably with little error - then it could intrigue him more, motivate him) ! Or maybe if it had happened in the era of, for example, Newton, and he had been asked for his opinion about "Eureka", he would have done a better job than Einstein???
