Another Small Coincidence? The X-Men: First Class, a Photo of Einstein, and a 1959 Book by C. Broad
September 18, 2011 3 Comments
C. D. Broad (1887-1971)
While in San Diego a week ago I visited a second-hand bookshop and bought several books. Tonight I switched on the movie The X-Men: First Class, rented on my Apple TV, and settled in to catalog the books I bought by entering useful data in my “Delicious Library” database. I was entering subject topics for the book Scientific Thought, by C. D. Broad (1959), and typing in “Einstein’s Theory of Relativity” when I looked up, two minutes and twenty-four seconds into the movie, to see a photo of Albert Einstein displayed on a young boy’s nightstand.
I just happened to be holding in my hand a book that treats the general theory of relativity at the same precise moment that there appeared on the TV screen a photo of Einstein, only visible for about two seconds.
I won’t speculate on the possible significance of this. All I want to do is make a record of this coincidence and ask, “How often does this sort of thing happen to you?”
About Doug Geivett
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Wow. This kind of thing has happened to me many times in the past. They were strange coincidences. But I can no longer recall the details of those incidences.
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Doug, my reply probably won’t help much, but…
I tend to take all my coincidental incidents very lightly, so I don’t really think enough about them to put them to memory.
That said, such coincidences (as the one you had) don’t happen often to me. I vaguely remember having had some, but can’t remember specifically what they were (likely due to my lack of attaching significance in them).
By the way, I’m honored and flabbergasted that I’m the only one responding to your question. As sports superstars are to the general public, philosophers such as yourself are to me. Clearly, the general public is deeply confused about what’s important…at least that’s what I think.
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“… at the same precise moment…” Seems there is some simultaneity considerations here. Or, just how coincident (in time) are these coincidences, according to relativity! 🙂
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