DECODING SOME EUREKA FORESEES
Juan Lartigue G.*
Antecedent
The author published in 2000 an essay1 that briefly mentioned some aspects of Poe’s personality and thinking and, in a wider form, analyzed twenty of his foresees related to Cosmology. Thirteen of them had previously been discussed by several Poe analysts and the remaining seven were interpreted by the author.
In the elapsed time since the essay publication, some astronomical findings have come to reinforce two of the before mentioned Poe’s foresees. As well, a review of some additional Poe’s propositions let us state their validity. A second essay2 oriented to their decoding was published (in Portuguese) in 2010, whose to-date English version follows.
Two propositions recently reaffirmed
Extra-solar planets
“Every shining speck in the firmament—says Poe3—is, no doubt, a luminous sun…having in attendance upon it a greater or less number of planets…”. Confirmation of extra-solar planets was achieved in 1995 and, for 2000, they had been discovered 29. Recent reports4 mention, to date, more than 500 extra-solar planets. It is particularly noticeable the additional Poe’s phrase: “a greater or less number of planets” since most of them have been found gathered in many planetary systems.
A distinct similitude
Near the conclusion of Eureka, Poe asks5: “…are we not, indeed, more than justified in entertaining a belief…that the process we have ventured to contemplate, will be renewed forever, and forever, and forever…at every throb of the Heart Divine?”. A recent study6, related to the variation of the ultraviolet radiation field as a factor of stars formation in our Galaxy, concludes that “the pattern repeats as a heartbeat”.
Analysis of some additional propositions
Symmetry in Physic’s Laws
Regarding symmetry, Poe expresses7: “It is perhaps, in no little degree, however, our propensity for the continuous–for the analogical—in the present case more particularly for the symmetrical—which has been leading us astray. And, in fact, the sense of the symmetrical is an instinct which may be dependent on with an almost blindfold reliance. It is the poetical essence of the Universe—of the Universe which, in the supremeness of its symmetry, is but the most sublime of poems. Now, symmetry and consistency are convertible terms: thus Poetry and Truth are one. A thing is consistent in the ratio of its truth—true in the ratio of its consistency”. The formal application of symmetry in the mathematical field8 was initiated in the middle of the XIX century with the works of W. Hamilton and K. Jacobi (Poe’s contemporaries) but the relationship of symmetry and physics was proved only in 1894 by P. Curie. More recently M. Cassé wrote9: “Il existe une relation familière à tous les physiciens entre ceux qu’ils qualifient de symétrie, d’une part, et loi de conservation d’autre part.…Si une loi de conservation transparaît derrière les phénomènes, le physicien ne peut s’estimer satisfait que lorsqu’il découvre la symétrie qu’elle exprime”. A recent book of T. Siegfried10 points out some interesting related concepts. Referring to the transcendental works of Emmy Noether, he says: “She also showed that some of physics’ most sacred laws are not accidents of nature, but rather are strict requirements, imposed by fundamental symmetries in space and time”. After, he expresses: “To physicists, symmetry is at the very heart of using mathematics to understand nature” and, referring to the recent phrases of the Nobel prize L. Lederman: “symmetry may be the most crucial concept of all…All the fundamental forces in nature are unified under one elegant symmetry principle…Symmetry controls physics in a most profound way, and this was the ultimate lesson of the twentieth century”.
As it can be appreciated, all of above relevant citations coincide with the genial Poe’s foresee about symmetry. In addition, at the beginning of this paragraph, he equates the concepts of continuous and analogical, such as they are taken now in applied Mathematics.
Mass annihilation
It is an odd situation that, to date, Poe’s analysts had no commented about some noticeable words appeared at the initial paragraphs11 of Eureka: “A task may be more or less difficult; but it is either possible or not possible; there are not gradations. It may be more difficult to overthrow the Andes than an ant-hill; but it can not be more impossible to annihilate the matter of the one than the matter of the other”. Though he could not be absolutely conscious of the present significance of his words, Poe was referring to the ultimate application of Special Relativity equation E=mc2: the phenomenon today known as matter annihilation only achieved, in very limited cases, in the second half of the 20th century. In short: he did not mention any type of matter diffusion, dis-aggregation (fission) or fusion but matter annihilation, that is to say, the most energetic of nuclear reactions by which the mass is fully converted to energy.
The butterfly effect
Another not-to-date noticed Poe’s proposition12 was that: “If I venture to displace, by even the billionth part of an inch, the microscopic speck of dust which lies now upon the point of my finger, what is the character of that act upon which I have ventured? I have done a deed which shakes the Moon in her path, which causes the Sun to be no longer the Sun, and which alters forever the destiny of the multitudinous myriads of stars that run and glow in the majestic presence of their Creator”. The equivalence of these ideas with those exposed one century later by E. Lorenz13 and R. Bradbury confirms that Poe was a first proponent of the concept named by Lorenz as the butterfly effect, a typical example of the chaos phenomena.
Intuition, Dark Energy and the Cosmological Principle
Poe critiques, in an ironic message from the future, the deductive and inductive methods of reasoning and concludes that14: “…a perfect consistency [of reasoning] can be nothing but an absolute truth”…To illustrate the importance of intuition if it is supported by a consistent reasoning, he wrote: “Yes – this vital laws Kepler guessed-that is to say, he imagined them.” The relevance of intuition in Science was recognized at the beginning of the 20th century by H. Poincaré, though it had been employed well before by others such as Fermat, Galois, Pascal, Riemann and Oswald15. Perhaps the most relevant case of intuition applied to Modern Physics was that of A. Einstein when he added to his field equations, without any justification, a cosmological ‘constant’ (?) in order to preserve the static universe concept, currently accepted in his time. In this respect, T. Siegfred16 says: “Dirac prediscover antimatter because equations told him to. Einstein seems to be telling the equations what to do…Perhaps this is a good example …to understand how prediscovery is possible”. After the confirmation of the universe expansion by E. Hubble, Einstein recognized his mistake. However, a deeper interpretation of his ‘constant’ has lead to the new concept of an unknown ‘Dark Energy’, which generates the universe expansion. So, the intuitive Einstein daring turned into an unexpected success.
Poe says17: “I am fully warranted in announcing that the law which we have been in the habit of calling Gravity exists on account of Matter’s having being irradiated, at its origin, atomically, into a limited sphere of Space, from one, individual, unconditional, irrelative and absolute Particle Proper, by the sole process in which it is possible to satisfy, at the same time, the two conditions, radiation and generally-equable distribution throughout the sphere, that is to say, by a force varying in direct proportion with the squares of the distances between the radiated atoms, respectively, and the Particular centre of Irradiation”. A. Cappi showed18 that the Poe’s expanding model meant a concept similar to that expressed by the Hubble law to confirm the expansive model of the Universe, imagined by Poe and mathematically deduced by Friedman. As mentioned above, the expansion of the Universe has been attributed to a mysterious dark energy, which would provide the force necessary to irradiate the matter. Therefore, it is possible to consider that Poe foresaw this phenomenon though he assumed it as a display of the Volition of God. Furthermore, the phrase “generally-equable distribution throughout the sphere” is an equivalent expression of the Cosmological Principle in General Relativity.
An additional commentary
It has been often said that Poe did not had the academic degree necessary to speculate on Science, in spite that the same occurred with eminent scientists and philosophers such as W. Herschel and D. Hume. Beside, it should be noticed that the word ‘scientist’ was coined only in 1840 by W. Whewell. “Poe19, like Newton, still thought of himself as a ‘natural philosopher’ whose ultimate affiliations were less with research than with ‘natural theology’ ”.
References
1 – J. Lartigue, “Edgar Allan Poe and Science: A cosmic poet”, C. Nilsson ed., (2000), www.poedecoder.com
2 – J. Lartigue, “Decodificando Algumas das Previsöes de Eureka”, www.poebrasil.com.br, (2010)
3 – Edgar Allan Poe, “Eureka” in: H. Beaver, “The Science Fiction of E.A.Poe”, Penguin Books, p.282, (1976)
4 – J. Schneider, “Enciclopedia de los Planetas Extrasolares”, (Jan, 2011), http://exoplanets.eu/catalog/
5 – Ref. 3, p. 307
6 – A. Kritsuk and M. Norman, “Stars Heartbits Help Stir up Galaxies”, Sc. American, (Nov. 4, 2002), www.scientificamerican.com
7 – Ref. 3, p.299
8 – K. Brading and E. Castellani, “Symmetries in Physics”, Cambridge Univ. Press, p.4, (2003)
9 – M, Cassé, “ Du Vide et de la Création”, Poches O. Jacob, p. 53, (2001)
10 – T. Siegfred, “Strange Matters”, J. Henry Press, p. 62, (2002)
11 – Ref. 3, p. 223
12 – Ref. 3, p. 236
13 – R. Ortega, “Teoría del Caos”, Conference at the National University of México, (Aug., 2005)
14 – Ref. 3, p. 219
15 – Ref. 1, p. 3
16 – Ref. 10, p. 144
17 – Ref. 3, p. 254
18 – A. Cappi, “Edgar Allan Poe’s Physical Cosmology”, Q.J.R. Astr. Soc., p.183, (1994)
19 – Ref. 3, p. 397.
* Juan Lartigue G. is a member of the crew of the poe-eureka web page.