Notes on Fact vs. Fiction
In constructing the fictional narrative around the key creative moments of the three principal historical figures in this book, I have taken great care to remain faithful to the facts. Nearly every person, place, event or entity featured in the story is grounded in historical records or present reality.
In this section, I am sharing some interesting factual details compiled from various sources and woven into the narrative. In many cases, I have used the actual words of Einstein, Noyce, Jobs and their associates, quoting them as closely as possible. The only significant creative liberty I have taken is to compress some events into a shorter timeframe (usually twenty-four hours or less) to support the time-travel structure of the story.
If you are a reader who simply enjoys a good story without worrying about the background material, feel free to skip this section. But if you are someone who loves to know where ideas came from and how certain historical moments unfolded, then this section is for you!
The notes refer to materials listed in the Sources section, which includes books, technical papers, news articles, letters and websites. All citations use the short title IDs in square brackets […], as listed in the Sources section. The notes are grouped into five sections which correspond to the five parts of the novel.