Piero Scaruffi

These are excerpts and elaborations from my book "The Nature of Consciousness"

Superstring Theory: Higher Dimensions Countless approaches have been proposed to integrate the quantum and the (general) relativistic views of the world. The two theories are obviously very different and the excuse that they operate at different "granularity" levels of nature (Quantum Theory for the very small and Relativity Theory for the very big) is not very credible. Physicists have been looking for a theory that explains both, a theory of which both would be special cases. Unfortunately, applying Quantum Theory to Relativity Theory has proved unrealistic. The problem is that they are founded on different "metaphors" of the world. Relativity Theory binds together space-time and matter. Quantum Theory binds together matter and the observer (an observer who is supposed to verify the consequences of binding together matter and the observer who is supposed to...). Relativity focuses on how the gravity of massive bodies bends the structure of time and space and are in turn influenced in their motion by the curvature of space-time. Quantum Theory focuses on the fuzziness in the life of elementary particles. If one simply feeds Schroedinger's equation (how the world evolves according to Quantum Theory) into Einstein's equation (how the world evolves according to Relativity Theory) the resulting equation appears to be meaningless. Basically, we don’t have a Physics that holds in places where both gravity and quantum effects are crucial, like at the centers of black holes or during the first moments of the “Big Bang”. General Relativity explains motion. Einstein’s equations are precise. Quantum Theory explains that motion is undefined. Heisenberg’s principle is fuzzy. General Relativity shows that time is relative. Quantum Theory assumes a universal watch setting the pace for the universe. “Time” looks completely different in one theory and in the other, almost as if the two theories used the term “time” to refer to two different things. Ditto for the “observer”: Einstein’s observer is part of the universe and in fact is affected by the universe, whereas Quantum Theory’s observer has a special status that exempts her from quantum laws (the quantum universe is divided into particles that are measured and "observers" who make measurements). Back to the beginning of the chapter "The New Physics" | Back to the index of all chapters