Rebecca Newberger Goldstein at Santa Fe Institute

The novelist/philosopher Rebecca Newberger Goldstein spoke at the Santa Fe Institute on "Why Einstein Wrote a (Bad) Love Poem to Spinoza". Her wonderful lecture was mostly about Spinoza, but also about his influence on some heavy weights, such as Einstein and Antonio Damasio. His work paved the way for "The Age of Enlightenment" after his death. As a non-dual meditator, I loved her comments about Spinoza the "great collapser", who sought non-dual unity, quite contrary to his older contemporary Descartes and his famed/dreaded duality. Salon.com's review of her book Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave us Modernity called Spinoza the "atheist Jew who was drunk on God". The definition of God, discussed in the lecture was quite interesting. I originally knew Ms. Goldstein from her novel Properties of Light: a Novel of Love, Betrayal and Quantum Physics, which I recommend. After the lecture, the SFI physicists cleared out quickly, so we got to have a nice chat with her. She was kind enough to listen to my story of how Spinoza influenced my cousin when she discussed him with her father as a young girl. By the way, Ms. Goldstein is the Miller Scholar at SFI, a chair funded by DRZ's old nemesis, Bill Miller!