The crisis in theoretical physics is only matched by the crisis on wall street. Funny thing is, many people are blaming physicists (especially string theory physicists) for both crises. However, in a paper just now submitted to the Foundational Questions Institute (FQXI.org), as submission to their essay contest on the nature of time, I make the point that string theory attempts to explain the forces of nature, as a property of motion, and its success in this regard cannot be easily dismissed.
The trouble is, string theory is not based on a symmetry group. Of course, the LRC’s development of an RST theory also views force as a property of motion, following Larson, but the good news is that it appears to fit into a mathematical group, even a mathematical field. In the essay, I tried to make this the central point, since it is symmetry, and its mathematical properties, that has come to play such a central role in theoretical physics.
It, turns out, however, that talking about mathematical groups makes people’s eyes droop with weariness. So, I had to use lots of graphics as an antidote of sorts. Even so, four out of four scientists that I asked to review it declined, one saying that he didn’t have the time nor the inclination to learn about another “theory of everything.” Since I didn’t use that phrase (I hate it), it must have been his own choice of words, after reading from the paper.
I can understand why it’s so hard for practitioners of normal science to take new ideas seriously, or even to take a serious look at new views, especially those offered from “uncommitted investigators.” It’s hard work, and people are so spread out, with hardly enough time to work on what they want to work on, let alone dive into completely unfamiliar territory, that they are very reluctant to help out.
So, today, I attended a lecture given by one of the scientists that turned me down, and listened attentively, while he reviewed all the scientific reasons why one should accept the “standard model” of cosmology. Yet, as each slide was presented and explained, I thought how the same data fits the non-standard cosmology of the reciprocal system just as well in most cases, and how true it is that our own conclusions are easily confirmed when that’s what we want.
Yet, without question, nothing we know today requires us to believe that the observed cosmic expansion implies that there was a beginning to the expansion. Indeed, the fact that evidence now suggests that there will be no end to the cosmic expansion, implies that there also was no beginning to it. If we entertain this notion, which the reciprocal system clearly urges us to do, we see that none of the data that we have gathered to date is inconsistent with the concept.
However, to entertain the possibility that a new concept is as consistent with observations as what we already believe requires some work on the part of investigators to understand how the new concept explains the data. If we contend that a logical process that explains the origin of matter exists that doesn’t include the highly concentrated energy and density of a common event, the burden is on us to explain how, but it’s impossible to do that if those who are to be convinced are thinking in terms of the familiar concept, while they consider the claims of the new theory.
The mastery of the new concept must come first, so that’s why we begin at the begin, with a new definition of space and time, as the two, reciprocal, aspects of scalar motion. It cannot be denied that this implies that the nature of the observed progression of time is that it is just the inverse of the observed progression of space, and that might be startling, and therefore difficult to entertain, but once it’s understood that it goes on to reveal an entirely unknown sector of the universe, as a heretofore unknown player in the drama, which we see unfolding before our eyes, there is just no going back. It’s like the discovery of the new world beyond the sea. Once that happens, the race to explore and colonize the new territory is on.
But try to explain that to an Italian scholar in 1508, who never heard of Chris, and who is convinced that it’s not worth his time to read a sailor’s fanciful tales of a new world, full of gold and treasure, when he has lessons to prepare for students, letters to write to his colleagues, and funds to raise for his work.