Second Coming: Extending the Entertainment

Will there ever be a theory of quantum gravity?

In the novel, Paul Genet tells his story to the abbot of a monastery he seeks to join. After Paul finishes, the abbot asks Paul questions to further help decide whether to admit him or not. Here, Paul answers the mother of all questions in science. —Editor

Abbot: Will there ever be a coherent theory of quantum gravity?

Paul: The short answer is, no.

The philosopher Hegel is responsible for the conceit that it is possible to combine binary opposites, like relativity theory (gravity) and quantum theory (no gravity), and get something greater, like the theory of everything. You know the drill: thesis + antithesis = synthesis.*

If only the world worked that way. Unfortunately, synthesis is wishful thinking, and quantum gravity is a fantasy, a chimera. Binary opposites do not combine. They cancel out. Equal and opposite, they negate each other. Instead of getting something greater when you combine binary opposites, you get something less. Actually, you get nothing.

What was Hegel thinking? Beats me, but I know he wasn't thinking about a balanced universe when he came up with synthesis. Of course, I could be wrong, and the universe is unbalanced rather than balanced. But an unbalanced universe makes no sense and I simply cannot give myself over to something that makes no sense.

Nobel laureate, and a founder of quantum mechanics, Niels Bohr recognized that, while wave-particle descriptions were inconsistent, incompatible and contradictory, both were necessary for a complete description of nature. He knew better than try to merge wave-particle descriptions, and he would scratch his head in astonishment at all the resources being poured into the search for quantum gravity, a project which amounts to an attempt to square the circle.

^* Some Hegel scholars today object to the traditional use of thesis-antithesis-synthesis because it suggests that the contradiction comes from outside. Paul is sympathetic. His designation of thesis-antithesis as binary means that the contradiction does not and cannot come from outside. —Editor

Balance as the operating principle of the universe | Balance as the non-local hidden variable of quantum physics

‘Second Coming’ protagonist, Paul Genet, answers questions about his universe:

What is time?

Why is there something rather than nothing?

What is the true nature of existence?

Has the Universe been replaced by a Multiverse?

Does God exist in the balanced universe of Paul Genet?

Does life exist elsewhere in the universe?

Is the universe a computer?

Are superstrings the theory of everything?

Is Schrödinger's cat both alive and dead in a balanced quantum universe?

What is memory?

What is the origin of language?