Comments about "Theory of everything" in Wikipedia

This document contains comments about the article Theory of everything in Wikipedia
In the last paragraph I explain my own opinion.

Contents

Reflection

Introduction

The article starts with the following sentence.
A theory of everything (TOE or ToE), final theory, ultimate theory, or master theory is a hypothetical single, all-encompassing, coherent theoretical framework of physics that fully explains and links together all physical aspects of the universe.
Such a theory, a better name is law, will never be found.
The more you want to explain, to describe, the complexer such a law becomes.
Finding a TOE is one of the major unsolved problems in physics.
It will remain unsolved forever.
These two theories upon which all modern physics rests are general relativity (GR) and quantum field theory (QFT)
Yes, but this are two distinct theories.
Since the usual domains of applicability of GR and QFT are so different, most situations require that only one of the two theories be used.
Correct.
I would write: 'are used' or 'can be used'
According to string theory, every particle in the universe, at its most microscopic level (Planck length), consists of varying combinations of vibrating strings (or strands) with preferred patterns of vibration.
That is easy to assume, but difficult to prove.

1. Historical antecedents

1.1 From ancient Greece to Einstein

In 1814, building on these results, Laplace famously suggested that a sufficiently powerful intellect could, if it knew the position and velocity of every particle at a given time, along with the laws of nature, calculate the position of any particle at any other time:
It is impossible to know the positions of all the elementary particles at a given time.
After 1915, when Albert Einstein published the theory of gravity (general relativity), the search for a unified field theory combining gravity with electromagnetism began with a renewed interest.
The problem is that electro magnetic processes and gravitational processes are completely different.
In some sense you always need both.
More than a half a century later, Einstein's dream of discovering a unified theory has become the Holy Grail of modern physics.
A unified theory is like an overall description of the universe in all its details. It does not exist and is not very practical.

1.2 Twentieth century and the nuclear interactions

Gravity and electromagnetism could always peacefully coexist as entries in a list of classical forces, but for many years it seemed that gravity could not even be incorporated into the quantum framework, let alone unified with the other fundamental forces.
The problem is that each process in some sense involves always all.
So far, the quest for a theory of everything is thus unsuccessful on two points: neither a unification of the strong and electroweak forces – which Laplace would have called 'contact forces' – nor a unification of these forces with gravitation has been achieved.
Okay.

2 Modern physics

2.1 Conventional sequence of theories

2.2 String theory and M-theory

2.3 Loop quantum gravity

2.4 Other attempts

2.5 Present status

3 Philosophy

4 Arguments against

4.1 Gödel's incompleteness theorem

4.2 Fundamental limits in accuracy

4.3 Lack of fundamental laws

4.4 Impossibility of being "of everything"

4.5 Infinite number of onion layers

4.6 Impossibility of calculation

5. See also

Following is a list with "Comments in Wikipedia" about related subjects

Reflection 1

Reflection 2

Reflection 3

Feedback

If you want to give a comment you can use the following form Comment form
Created: 12 January 2019

Go Back to Wikipedia Comments in Wikipedia documents
Back to my home page Index