Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity Need a Divorce

When it comes to the scientific understanding of the nature of reality, there are two main ideas that are used to explain pretty much everything scientists know about the physical universe. These two pillars of scientific thought are quantum mechanics, which deals with subatomics, and general relativity, which deals with everything else.¹

Think of the magnitude of what these ideas encompass and now consider the fact that the two ideas are incompatible with one another.² In their own realms of physics they are great, but as physicist Brian Green states, “when the equations of general relativity commingle with those of quantum mechanics… the equations completely breakdown.”² Michio Kaku describes “the great mystery of the last five decades…has been the total incompatibility of these two theories.”

Have you noticed the problem? One of these theories, which provide us with our understanding of the cosmos, must be wrong or, even both could be wrong. Just how much do we know about the cosmos?

Supersymmetric String Theory

What is the solution? Come up with a unification theory that can revolutionize our understanding of physics. Let’s look at the two most common attempts to do this. First up is Supersymmetric String Theory (SST).⁴ Now get this, the theory does not blend quantum mechanics and general relativity, but completely changes our concept of the fundamentals of reality.⁵ In short, our friend SST theorizes that there are tiny (I’m talking billions of times smaller than we can currently see with the best microscopic tech tiny) strings of energy that create vibrations that produce the vast array of particle properties that exist within the cosmos. Now there are no ways to currently prove this and this theory has an interesting side effect of claiming that there are ten dimensions in our universe instead of the commonly held view that there are four.⁷

M-Theory

So what about the second unifying theory? It is called M-Theory. (What M stands for no one knows… seriously!)⁸ M-Theory is essentially a combination of five different major string theories that all try to come together, much like Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity, except instead of two theories we are now trying to blend five different theories.⁹  M-Theory also has that funky dimensional side effect thing, but it creates 11 dimensions.¹⁰

M-Theory continues to get interesting, especially for scientists who have a beef with believing in God because they can’t empirically prove His existence. M-Theory is not able to be proved.¹¹ Even more, scientists don’t believe it will ever be able to be proved. But don’t lose heart! Well, not yet, at least.

Within M-Theory’s five string theories there are as many as 10⁵⁰⁰ smaller string theories.¹² Now here is a problem: We’ve got that large number of unprovable (and some even untestable) string theories making up M-Theory. Yet, at least we can test some string theories. However, I hate to break it to you, but those string theories are “known to be wrong.”¹³ In the end, the theory is “untestable” and “not one shred of experimental evidence has been found to confirm the existence of supersymmetry, let alone superstrings.”¹⁴ 

The Depth of Our Ignorance 

Stokes sums it up well: “We have decent reasons for thinking that our two best theories—general relativity and quantum mechanics—are false in important ways and that the best candidates for a replacement theory are inchoate, untested, and maybe untestable.”¹⁵ One last important point is that this is the current setting for the theories relating to the physical reality of the cosmos, what about the nonphysical reality?¹⁶ Let’s just say that in the scientific community, the jury is still out.

Notes

1. Mitch Stokes, How to be an Atheist: Why Many Skeptics Aren’t Skeptical Enough, 2016, Ch 8: The Current Crisis, 120
2. Ibid. 120-121; Quoted from: The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality (New York Vintage, 2004), 2nd ed., Graduate Texts in Contemporary Physics (New York: Springer, 1999) 15
3. Ibid. 121; Quoted from: Michio Kaku, Introduction to Superstrings and M-Theory, p. 3
4. Ibid. 122
5. Ibid. 122
6. Ibid. 122-123
7. Ibid. 123; Taken from: Brian R. Greene, The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality (New York: Vintage, 2004) 18
8. Ibid. 124
9. Ibid. 124
10. Ibid. 125
11. Ibid. 125-126
12. Ibid. 127; Taken from: Lee Smolin, The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006), 13
13. Ibid. 125; Quoted from: Smolin, The Trouble with Physics, xvi
14. Ibid. 126; Quoted from: Kaku, Introduction to Superstrings and M-Theory, 17
15. Ibid. 128
16. Ibid. 129

Photo by Raphaël Biscaldi on Unsplash