Saturday, November 8

The Theory of Everything

Thanks to Steven Garrity for pointing me to the theory of everything. Now I'm looking for a spoon to scoop up my brain, since it's leaked out of my ears upon watching the 3 fantastic hours.

String Theory theorizes that *everything* is based on, and created from, infintesimally small strings of energy. How small? It's impossible to imagine. However, imagine that an atom (already too-impossibly small to imagine) is the size of our universe (already too-impossibly large to imagine). A single string would be the size of a tree in this universe-sized atom. That's small.

String Theory was discovered/invented/imagined so that a single, unifying mathematical equation or formula could be used to explain our universe. The problem with String Theory is that it cannot be proven or disproven. Scientists are excited about it because the math seems to indicate that it's viable, even if they are forced to invent/imagine a universe in which 11 dimensions must exist for string theory to work.

Of course, after watching the program, I am now an expert, and have a valid opinion on the whole thing. My opinion is this: String Theory is as valid to string theorists as the existence of God is to Christians. It is no more factual and likely than any other philosophy of existence. To me, there are simply too many leaps of faith, assumptions, and if-then scenarios required of string theory, many of which are unprovable, to put my faith in it.

If this kind of stuff interests you in the least, I highly recommend watching this. It's mind-blowingly fascinating.



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