Finishing Einstein Point by Point: The unification of quantum and relativity (original) (raw)

It might seem that the unification of physics within a single paradigm has been the primary goal in science for only the past few decades, but this would not be true. Unification was the original goal of Einstein and a few other physicists from the 1920s to the 1960s, during a period of time when quantum theorists were ironing out their own unique problems. Their original notion of unification was based on relativity theory rather than the quantum. Unification in the guise of the quantum paradigm only emerged during the 1970s and has since overshadowed all other attempts to unify physics. Quantum theorists believe their work is more accurate, fundamental and even more practical than relativity even though there is little or no evidence to support that belief. For all intents and purposes, the two theories seem mutually incompatible, so the unification of physics has recently proceeded along the lines of an either/or strategy: Either the quantum theory is correct and relativity is wrong, or relativity is correct and the quantum theory wrong. In fact, quantum theorists have been very aggressively trying to replace the space-time curvature of general relativity with gravitons, quantum gravity, other mythical particles and equally speculative gimmicks for several decades and all of their attempts have been futile. In reality, both approaches are basically flawed because both theories are incomplete as they are now understood. Had either side of the controversy just simplified their worldview and sought commonality between the two instead of concentrating on false made-up differences, unification could have been accomplished long ago. The point is, literally, that the discrete quantum, continuous relativity, basic physical geometry and classical physics all share one common characteristic – a paradoxical duality between a dimensionless point and an extended length in any dimension – and if the problem of unification is approached from an attempt to understand how this problem relates to each paradigm all of physics could be unified within a single new theoretical model. Unfortunately, there has traditionally been no method by which a three-dimensional space can be generated from dimensionless points, raising the question – how can dimensionless point particles be extended to account for the three-dimensional space in which the physical interactions they describe occur? This very question is basic to both the quantum theory and relativity, but neither has attempted to answer it although Einstein and others’ attempts to develop classical unified field theories have come closest to the answer. The unification of physics is impossible until this question is answered, but once it is answered the unification follows naturally and easily.