Towards a Theory of Everything
Steve Wallis
(www.socialiststeve.me.uk), 14 May 2009
Devising a "Theory of Everything" is the holy grail of physics.
Physicists contend that there are four fundamental forces in the
universe (strong nuclear, weak nuclear, electromagnetic and
gravitational) but a theory that encompasses all four forces has so
far eluded them. In fact, they have failed in the slightly less
ambitious task of unifying quantum mechanics (describing the very
small) with general relativity (describing the very big), to devise a
"Grand Unification Theory" (encompassing all the fundamental forces
apart from gravity). They have resorted to bizarre theories that bear
little relationship to the real universe, like "11-dimensional M-
theory" (matrix string theory), and still not arrived at a complete
solution.
I suggest that the reason physicists have not yet unified theories
about the very big and the very small is that are things in between -
conscious living beings - which make free will decisions. I claim that
there is something to life outside matter, although perhaps life can
be considered a form of energy or a fifth fundamental force, which we
can call "chi" (life force). I have some religious views, believing
that there is some sort of spiritual plane or heaven and perhaps a
god, but my theory may be compatible with atheism if there is another
dimension or link to a parallel universe. I do not claim to have come
up with a set of equations describing free will; instead, I would
argue that no set of equations for it can possibly be derived. My
expertise is in artificial intelligence and politics (being an ex-
Marxist) rather than physics, although I did get an A at A-level
physics 25 years ago; I can therefore claim to understand more than
physicists how people think!
The Marxist term "materialism", as used in "dialectical materialism"
describing the natural world and society and "historical materialism"
when applied to history, means that everything is a result of material
conditions - our inputs (the results of our senses) affect our outputs
(what we say or do) over time (taking into account memories in our
minds and other cells of our bodies).
Philosophers use the term "determinism" for the same thing. This
leaves no scope for free will and would rationally mean that
everything is predetermined by the Big Bang (assuming this was how the
universe started of course)! Many Marxists (including Friedrich
Engels who originated dialectics) have used the term "alien class",
which could mean a class from outside without specifying which one but
implies that there is a class of aliens, and Rosa Lichtenstein (who
has perhaps studied dialectical materialism the most) uses "alien-
class" with a dash in essays on her anti-dialectics website - although
she claims to agree with materialism, I suspect she believes in a
class of aliens for which materialism does not apply!
Actually, quantum mechanics, which was conceived after the time of
Marx and Engels, introduces randomness with their being a probability
of a particle decaying in a certain period of time. The paradox in
quantum mechanics of Schrödinger's Cat, for which there is a 50%
chance of it being killed by a decaying particle within a period of
time and which is supposedly alive and dead at the same time until the
box it is in is opened, is avoided because the cat is a living being
with free will.
I agree with James Lovelock's theory of the combined minds of
everybody in the world (and animals) being a sort of self-regulating
super-organism which he calls Gaia, rather more literally than
Lovelock himself, with our free will decisions made in conjunction
with each other, based on models of other individuals and
organisations in our own minds, to ensure that everything works out in
one way or other. The bizarre idea in quantum mechanics of measuring a
wave affecting it (with a "wave function collapsing" to yield
particles) makes more sense when all observers of the wave are part of
the same super-organism.
Lovelock appeared to reject his own theory (about the world being self-
regulating to ensure everything works out) in his book "Revenge of
Gaia", due to the possibility that global warming would eliminate
human life, but our free will decisions can and will avoid such a
calamity - and other potential calamities like nuclear annihilation.
Or perhaps, if global warming does make the world uninhabitable, human
beings could move elsewhere in the galaxy (which we may of course be
able to do irrespective of what happens to the earth's temperature) -
I consider that the universe, not just the earth, is a super-organism.
There is a danger of being fatalistic with such an analysis, but some
outcomes for the human race would be far from desirable, such as
capitalism enshrined forever with attacks on our civil liberties such
as ID cards linked to a central database to prevent a socialist
revolution - this is indeed the main agenda of New Labour in Britain.
[The Patriot Act in the USA has a similar purpose.] Alternatively,
racial and religious hatred could escalate into a dreadful spiral of
terrorism, leading to "barbarism" as Rosa Luxembourg put it. If
fascists like the British National Party came to power, this would be
the likely consequence. I am very confident this won't happen and that
some sort of good, varied and interesting world will come out of the
struggles taking place in the world today, but everybody's free will
can play a role in this coming about and exactly what sort of world we
will have.
I have quite a developed understanding of how human minds work, based
on the struggle between good and bad forces, corresponding to people
who are predominantly caring or selfish, which I will soon outline in
my New Good Intentions Manifesto. I am currently unsure whether there
are separate super-organisms for people with good intentions from
those with bad ones, and whether serious computer modelling of
people's minds by AI software is possible to effectively turn people
into robots. I think that all conspiratorial organizations involve
some bad people as well as good people and resort to unethical methods
to try to become dominant. For a truly good world, free will has to
become dominant!
As you will have noticed, this is not a complete Theory of Everything
but a contribution to debates on the subject. I would welcome
comments. Email revolutionary...@yahoo.co.uk or phone me on
07725 735255.
--
Steve Wallis (Manchester, England)
Preferred email address: revolutionary...@yahoo.co.uk
Super-blog: http://www.twitter.com/socialiststeve
Other blogs: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/steve-wallis-socialist-blog,
http://blog.myspace.com/galaxiasteve
My socialist website: http://www.socialiststeve.me.uk
My pages at Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1038291480,
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/galaxiasteve and Bebo:
http://www.bebo.com/SteveW519
Founder, Ethical Capitalism Network: http://www.ethicalcapitalism.net
Founder, Foundation for Proportional Representation-based Socialism:
http://www.PRsocialism.org
Founder, Revolutionary Platform Network: http://www.revolutionaryplatform.net
My revolutionary socialist band, Galaxia:
http://www.galaxiamusic.net,http://www.myspace.com/galaxiamusic,
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Galaxia-a-revolutionary-socialist-band/84310120180,
http://www.bebo.com/galaxiamusic.
My socialist band, Red Day: http://www.red-day.net,
http://www.myspace.com/reddayband,http://www.facebook.com/pages/Red-Day/27468311341
Author, "Revolution Destroyed? Have I ensured that a world socialist
revolution will never happen?": http://www.revolutiondestroyed.net
For discussion of the credit crunch, go to
http://www.revolutionaryplatform.net/forum/index.php?board=156
For discussion of 9/11 conspiracy theories, go to
http://www.revolutionaryplatform.net/forum/index.php?board=89
srd
<revolutionarysocialistst...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> Towards a Theory of Everything - by Steve Wallis
> (www.socialiststeve.me.uk), 14 May 2009
>
> Devising a "Theory of Everything" is the holy grail of physics.
> Physicists contend that there are four fundamental forces in the
> universe (strong nuclear, weak nuclear, electromagnetic and
> gravitational) but a theory that encompasses all four forces has so
> far eluded them. In fact, they have failed in the slightly less
> ambitious task of unifying quantum mechanics (describing the very
> small) with general relativity (describing the very big), to devise a
> "Grand Unification Theory" (encompassing all the fundamental forces
> apart from gravity). They have resorted to bizarre theories that bear
> little relationship to the real universe, like "11-dimensional M-
> theory" (matrix string theory), and still not arrived at a complete
> solution.
>
> I suggest that the reason physicists have not yet unified theories
> about the very big and the very small is that are things in between -
> conscious living beings - which make free will decisions.
You and the Pope.
srd
> comments. Email revolutionarysocialistst...@yahoo.co.uk or phone me on
> 07725 735255.
>
> --
> Steve Wallis (Manchester, England)
> Preferred email address: revolutionarysocialistst...@yahoo.co.uk
> Super-blog:http://www.twitter.com/socialiststeve
> Other blogs:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/steve-wallis-socialist-blog,http://blog.myspace.com/galaxiasteve
> My socialist website:http://www.socialiststeve.me.uk
> My pages at Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1038291480,
> MySpace:http://www.myspace.com/galaxiasteveand Bebo:http://www.bebo.com/SteveW519
> Founder, Ethical Capitalism Network:http://www.ethicalcapitalism.net
> Founder, Foundation for Proportional Representation-based Socialism:http://www.PRsocialism.org
> Founder, Revolutionary Platform Network:http://www.revolutionaryplatform.net
> My revolutionary socialist band, Galaxia:http://www.galaxiamusic.net,http://www.myspace.com/galaxiamusic,http://www.facebook.com/pages/Galaxia-a-revolutionary-socialist-band/...,http://www.bebo.com/galaxiamusic.
> My socialist band, Red Day:http://www.red-day.net,http://www.myspace.com/reddayband,http://www.facebook.com/pages/Red-D...
> Author, "Revolution Destroyed? Have I ensured that a world socialist
> revolution will never happen?":http://www.revolutiondestroyed.net
> For discussion of the credit crunch, go tohttp://www.revolutionaryplatform.net/forum/index.php?board=156
