LRFotS Robert W passed on a video to me via a comment to this week’s Great Mondaydact Browser Slayer that is both deeply engaging and very thought-provoking. It concerns attempts by physicists to find a new and tractable approach to that hoary old chestnut, “The Theory of Everything”, which will do the seemingly impossible – combine quantum mechanics with general relativity.
To understand why this is impossible using “conventional” physics and mathematics, you need to understand that quantum mechanics defines what happens at scales at, and below, the atomic level. In this environment, everything becomes probabilistic, not deterministic – and a consequence of this is that you can figure out the position of something, or its speed, but NOT both. Everything becomes impossibly complicated and hugely confusing. In all honesty, very few people truly understand quantum physics – and anyone who says he does, whose name ISN’T “Richard P. Feynman”, is quite possibly lying his arse off.
General relativity, on the other hand, attempts to construct a universal theory of gravitation that accounts for galactic-scale events. The famous “Einstein” Theory of Special Relativity – there is considerable controversy about whether he plagiarised his work from Poincare and others – accounts for the relationship between mass and energy, and “his” Theory of General Relativity expands upon Newtonian dynamics to explain how gravity works at the biggest scales in the Universe.
Both fields of physics have been heavily tested, and most of the predictions that they made, have turned out to be correct. There are a number of observed issues with General Relativity that are well-known, and other theories have come along to try to account for them, but no one alternative has ever been able to match the observable Universe anywhere near as well as that of General Relativity.
However, it is precisely because quantum mechanics and general relativity deal with completely different scales, that they are totally incompatible.
On the surface, this doesn’t make the slightest damned bit of sense. (Welcome to Physics 101. Take a seat over there, and don’t worry, you’ll be COMPLETELY confused by the time we’re done.) How can two theories that both work, and which explain so much about our observable Universe, possibly be totally incompatible?!?!
“The answer” to that question, whatever it is, surely is completely beyond me. I’m a mathematician by education, not a physicist – and yes, there is a big difference. Great physicists are also great mathematicians, but great mathematicians often struggle with physics, because so much of mathematics is completely abstract and impractical in nature. (Complex numbers and combinatorial games, anyone?) But we can put all of that to one side for a moment, because our friend sent over a video that helps explain how a group of physicists are trying to reconcile the two, by using a completely new paradigm:
That is a fascinating movie. Here is what Robert W had to say about it:
First: It’s a quality piece of art and film that tastefully presents complex concepts in effective condensed formats.
Second: They take an ax to the regular academy of intellect, shredding Taleb’s Intellectual Yet Idiot class.
Third: They describe with near perfection the Colossians 1:17 description of Jesus, “And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
Fourth: At the last 10% they evacuate the God construct and flee into feigned ignorance because of course, they couldn’t be describing the divine in whom we all live and have life.
Fifth: Paul knew these types to well, 1 Corinthians 3:18-20: “18 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” 20 And again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.”
I heartily agree with all of these points.
The film itself is excellent, and I highly recommend watching it all the end. But, if you do, you’ll notice that, at around the 27min mark, the makers of the film scramble DESPERATELY away from the very obvious, very logical conclusion to which they have driven for the ENTIRETY of their work.
As the film makes very clear, some kind of consciousness has plainly embedded itself within the very substance of the Universe. You and I call that consciousness, “GOD” – which He IS. But this is unacceptable to godless physicists, because it smacks of “religion” and “tradition”.
Boo freakitty hoo.
The scientific “end-run” around the issue of a Divine Creator, who stands (by definition) outside of His Creation, is to resort to the rather ridiculous notion that we are basically all part of a colossally complex computer simulation contained within a bigger Universe, run by an extraordinarily advanced alien civilisation. This is a very silly attempt to dodge the issue, and not a very effective one, either.
For, in order for that “container” Universe to exist, something had to come up with the code and programming that gave rise to our Universe. And that something is, for all intents and purposes, GOD. You just cannot get around the need for a Creator. The discipline of physics, for all of its explanatory power and brilliance, is still circumscribed by theology.
And that is hilarious, when you consider that the entire atheistic, materialist worldview is so desperate to get away from the idea of God. No matter how hard they try, they just can’t.
Robert Jastrow’s quote, shown above, has never been more appropriate than it is now. He was right, and the midwit morons that comprise the High Priests of Scientism are going to feel like right nitwits by the time they realise it.
1 Comment
This Robert Jarrow quote is outstanding and I am completely unfamiliar with it, I love it.
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“all part of a colossally complex computer simulation contained within a bigger Universe, run by an extraordinarily advanced alien civilization. This is a very silly attempt to dodge the issue, and not a very effective one, either.”
You are completely correct. Reminds me of the McGuffin in the movie Men In Black. It’s a marble hanging off the collar of a cat. It contains entire galaxies within it. At the end of the film, there’s a shot zooming away from earth, past the Oort cloud and the entire milky way, zooming all the way out of the marble our galaxy is in. Then an alien hand is playing marbles with the galaxy we inhabit, that shell within a shell within a shell concept.
https://youtu.be/SmjYfnnR94I
In the movie it works, it’s funny. Good comedy can leverage the absurd.
It’s not funny as the intellectual refugee of men fleeing from the Creator.
Thank you for re-sharing the documentary, I enjoyed reading your thoughts on it.