But how can I not? The world we live in today has been shaped by your brilliance, for better or for worse. That we shall see.

For a South Asian like me, the introduction to your work came while studying Chapter 8 of Physics Second Paper. I still cannot fathom how solving time-dilation problems about twins ageing differently can reveal how time bends across space, or how a theoretical physicist could imagine the universe while remaining firmly rooted in the dirt of the Earth.

By all accounts, you were a genius. Your mathematical equations are proof enough. However, one question lingers: what is to be your legacy? Is it simply that of a famous scientist with a collection of eccentric photographs, or that of a man who thought far too much for his own good?

In 1939, it was you, along with fellow scientists, who urged Franklin D. Roosevelt to develop nuclear weapons. One might have chosen a side, as was natural during that time. But you, with your universal understanding of time and gravity, may have underestimated the sheer force your influence would have in the decades to come.

Perhaps you acted out of fear. After all, you once said, “Had I known that the German nuclear programme would fail, I would have done nothing.”

Relativity, it seems, is an appropriate way to remember you. And I am not only speaking about the General Theory of Relativity. I am referring to the relative nature of your actions and influence, which helped inspire figures like J. Robert Oppenheimer and others to push forward the development of the bomb.

The Nazi Party may have been a terrifying place for a Jew like you, not to mention a member of the intelligentsia. Yet the land you chose to emigrate to was not, and still is not, the shining city upon a hill it proclaims itself to be.

Your adopted country, the United States, now stands at the forefront of what many call Western hegemony, a force that has shaped the global order for centuries.

The “Reich” known as America cannot easily be categorised within historical comparisons, for history has rarely witnessed anything quite like it. Even Ancient Rome, a civilisation known for conquest and expansion, did not wield power on such a global scale.

In shaping this reality, whether you intended it or not, Albert, you also played a role. Your presence at Princeton University inspired thousands, if not millions, to pursue rigorous science and innovation. Yet without universal access to that knowledge, such inspiration often strengthened the scientific institutions of the Western world, reinforcing the power of existing empires.

Others tried to replicate that knowledge however they could. The result of that race was the development of nuclear weapons by countries like India and Pakistan. Yet even with their existence, the global nuclear order still appears dominated by the strategic influence of the United States.

The world, Albert, has not been the same since E = mc².

And yet the world still owes you a great deal. Your work did not only contribute to the development of nuclear weapons. It also helped lay the foundations for medical technologies such as MRI scanners, radiotherapy, and X-rays.

Innovation, it seems, always rests in the hands of the next generation. And I realise it would be unwise to play the blame game entirely. Some of the responsibility lies with us as well.

Whatever the case may be, your existence on Earth shifted the proverbial needle of science, and the impact has been nothing short of seismic.

May you find peace with what you have manifested.