|
One of the fundamental problems of modern Physics is that two theories that
have been proven correct, Quantum Theory and Relativity Theory, are basically
not compatible. If both are correct representations of nature, how can they
be so different and even contradictory? Relativity prescribes a spacetime
continuum, whereas Quantum Theory prescribes a discrete world. Relativity is
deterministic, Quantum Theory is, at best, stochastic. How can one be derived
from the other?
So far, the most popular approach to unification has been "bottom-up: from Quantum Theory to Relativity. I propose that a more appropriate approach is top-down: deriving Quantum Theory as a special case of Relativity Theory. Quantum Theory has not explained why nature only likes some discrete values. Relativity Theory appears to me as stating some grander and somewhat more absolute about the universe; basically, about the dimensions of existence. Quantum Theory appears to me as telling us something about the human world of objects and measurements; basically, about the world of "sizes". One way to visualize my ideas is to think of relativistic spacetime as an ocean, and of quantum values as the ripples caused by an object moving through spacetime. The ocean is a continuum, but the ripples are discrete. Both the ocean and the ripples are real, and one can construct a theory to describe the ocean and a different theory to describe the ripples. To me, General Relativity is the theory about the ocean, and Quantum Theory is the theory about the ripples. In my opinion, Quantum Theory describes the ripples caused in spacetime by energy-matter in motion. Einstein's equations describe how spacetime warps because of energy-matter. Schroedinger's equations describe the ripples caused by such energy-matter. If I am right, Relativity's space and time are different from Quantum Theory's space and time. We use the same name for two different things: Relativity's space is a dimension, an underlying framework, whereas Quantum Theory's space is about the "size" of an object. Spacetime is the continuum that energy-matter interacts with. Quantum values are the results of measuring the ripples caused by that interaction. The reason that the ripples are discrete and not continuum is exactly the same that ripples form on a surface. Any attribute of an object over the ripples admits only some values, because it exists and it is measured only over the ripples. I believe that the probabilistic nature of Quantum Theory emerges because of the translation from "ocean" to "ripples". Ditto for the attributes (charge, spin, etc). They are all manifestations of the ripples. This theory is consistent with Linde's chaotic inflationary theory. Linde assumes that at the beginning there was a completely chaotic universe: there was no laws of nature at all. It was only by accident that some regions of the universe ended up being uniform enough that a positive feedback within them caused them to expand rapidly and create uniform universes. The inhabitants of each of these universes observe regular laws of nature, their symmetry due to the accidental orientation that started its expansion. The more each universe expands, the "smoother" it appears to be, just like a deflated balloon appears to be a contorted shape but it becomes a perfect sphere when inflated. We live in one such universe that appears to us to have uniform, symmetric laws of nature, while in reality that symmetry is a mere accident, a mere illusion. No wonder therefore that the symmetries of the Standard Model are "broken". The one law that all these universes have in common is Einstein's field equation: it is that equation that drives their expansion. That equation describes the ultimate layer of reality. I also believe that a theory of spacetime would be a theory of the "I". I believe that the "ripples" cause the "I" (which includes the world as the "I" sees it). As the observer travels through spacetime and creates the ripples, those ripples determine the world as the observer will see it, and thus determine the psychological state of the observer. In a sense, it is not the observer who "collapses the wave", but the wave that "collapses" the I of the observer, Each "I" is different because it follows a different route in spacetime (a different world line) which causes a different "I" (a different series of "collapses", i.e. a different set of observations, i.e. a different world). Each "I" sees/is a different world. General relativity is about the dynamics of the universe: it describes an eternal dance between the distribution of masses and the geometry of spacetime, the former determining the latter and the latter determining the motion of the former. Indirectly, Einstein's equations can be interpreted as the relationship (or the connection" of everything to everything else. As connections change, other connections change. Each connection gets adjusted to as to preserve some global feature of the universe. Basically, the universe behaves like a giant brain. I believe that quantization of spacetime would appear if one calculates the "connection of everything to everything else", as this is equivalent to constructing a landscape of attractors. |