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"God needs no dice to play with the universe." --Einstein, 1926*

It is written that Albert Einstein lived from 1879 to 1955. I remember him dying in 1970, my time. What can I say about Al?

He is/was the most famous scientist of the Twentieth Century. Of both Twentieth Centuries. While some experts? fault him for being a lesser man in his second iteration, this is clearly unfair. Should we fault Galileo for leaving the presence of a certain very large tree out of his heliocentric model? Should we blame Adlai for breaking up the band? Einstein, like all mortals, merely reacted to an altered cosmology; he is Ben Faulk writ large.

Let us consider Einstein*'s life course. In 1904, young, stateless, studying in Switzerland, he met Mileva Maric, fell in love, and set to woo her away from Tesla? by a series of scientific papers and discoveries. He was successful in both regards, producing a child and a doctoral thesis. The next year, he published in the "Annalen der Physik" what are commonly known as the "Annus Mirabilis Papers." One of these demonstrated the flaws in the Michelson-Morley experiment and successfully predicted the experimental properties of luminiferous aether, opening the way to aethercraft. Another groundbreaking work theoretically outlined the moral properties of small particles, including those known as Beauty, Justice, Corruption, Freedom, Strangeness, and Charm. This paper was the first expression of the ideas which later culminated in Einstein's theory of General Absolutivity.

In later life, he became a fervent trans-nationalist, extolling the virtues of the Concordat Magna even to the detriment of his scientific reputation. He devoted his unique understanding of etheric mechanics to improving the design of Legionary? warships and the effectiveness of their weaponry, making possible the military successes of Operation Locksmith and Operation Blind Watchmaker?. He still found time to appear via Zograscope, to play postal chess with Doktor Zumm, and, prior to 1937*, sit in for a few numbers with Adlai and his band.

As late as the 1940*'s, he considered building a combat suit and leaping into the fray under the nom de guerre "Doc Onestone." Fortunately, Captain Eaglewing dissuaded him from this Quixotic plan, and he remained safely behind the lines . In his declining years, he spent increasing amounts of time with the Fae, and sought ways to bridge the gap between mortal, Fae, and Noble. While the spectacle of the Year of the Burning Dogs? did not explain his death a year later at the age of 91, but the unravelling of all his efforts at reconciliation must have been very painful for the old man.

What are we to make of the fact that, in both timelines, Einstein rose from misfit to universally respected symbol of sagacity, and that in both timelines, he was chiefly responsible for delivering destructive technologies of tremendous power to the government? I can only conclude that, in the event of yet another Rollback, Al Einstein will be (will have been) responsible for the development of gunpowder weapons. Or fire. Or pointed sticks.

--Moses Mechanides?, "My Al and Yours"

SEE ALSO: Aetheric Domain, Chancels Legion, Operation Blind Watchmaker?, Theory of General Absolutivity

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This is a E entry in the Lexicon of the Lost 500 Years.