Einstein: “Electric And Magnetic Fields Do Not Exist Independently Of The State Of Motion Of The System Of Coordinates”: Its Importance To Neuroscience And The Mind (1905)

The full understanding of Einstein's statement is that electric and magnetic fields have a non-material aspect since we see systems of coordinates having different electric and magnetic fields depending on their status as either the stationary or instead the moving frame. Underlying the importance of these non-material systems of coordinates is the logic and reason at the heart of the relativity of simultaneity in special relativity that depends on the observer at rest in the stationary frame deducing that his specific simultaneity is not the simultaneity for the moving observer. The relativity of simultaneity is at the heart of the Lorentz coordinate transformation equations and is the starting point for relative time and space. Without the Lorentz coordinate transformation equations, we return to the Galilean coordinate transformation equations that cannot explain Einstein's statement since the Galilean coordinate transformation equations depend on absolute time and space. The oscillating electric and magnetic fields constituting the brain waves recorded in EEG and MEG that are associated with cognition can be understood in terms of Einstein's statement above. The relative character of time and space dependent on coordinate systems for different inertial reference frames in special relativity allows these frames to have different electric and magnetic fields depending on their status as either stationary or moving. Indeed, the two different scenarios where the roles of “stationary frame” and “moving frame” are exchanged between the reference frames co-exist on the level of knowledge. Neither scenario is preferred or more true. APS March Meeting 2025 In Person; Session: MAR-M00, Poster 289