Pi

I just saw one of the coolest movies I've ever seen.  Watching it with someone like Julie made it even more special.  The movie's called Pi, in reference to the math term.  It's about a math savant, who can calculate massive sums in his head at will, and his search for a pattern in nature that will help him predict things like the stock market.  He's not doing this because he's greedy, but because finding that pattern will glorify him as the man who discovered the secret inner workings of the universe.

It reminded me of Einstein's fabled search for the Grand Unified Theory of physics.  A genius whose sole purpose in life was finding the most elusive thing man can know.  Unlike Einstein, it drove him mad, even when he seemed to solve it.  Interestingly Einstein was a Jew, just like the savant in this movie.  There's a scene where he's abducted by Jewish extremists who treat him like the Messiah, trying to get him to tell them the name of God, which is really just a long string of numbers identified by a pattern in the Torah.  There must be something about Jews that makes them feel they are capable of discovering God through science and math.  I've heard my father is like is this as well.  It would be interesting to meet him.