Dr. David Gross, in a recent talk given at New York University, surveyed the past, the present and the future of theoretical physics. He concluded, once again, that the challenge lies in finding a new concept of space-time. “We suspect,” he says, “that space-time,” which is the non-dynamical basis for a framework of quantum fields, and the dynamical basis for string theory, as he describes it, “is emergent.”
So, given this reality, the question that arises is, “What are the rules of physics without spacetime?” He has no answer, of course, but the legacy system of theoretical physics (LST), “is alive and well,” he assures us, because it is in this “period of utter confusion.”
The only idea he foresees with any hope is to switch the system from one originating in fixed-space concepts, extending to the dynamics of space-time (quantum gravity), to one somehow originating in time, extending to space-time, where fixed-space is emergent.
The trouble is, of course, he knows of no one who knows how to do that, or even where to begin. Hence, the LST community is “stuck,” as Steven Weinberg put it many years ago, and David Gross just puts the same grim conclusion in more expansive terms, when he asks, “What is the framework of theoretical physics?” The “True answer is,” he says, “we have no idea!”
He goes on to say, “We have no idea how to even formulate it, what the boundaries are, or what the rules are, the equations, the thing that replaces the path intregal, the action, or anything like that.” To be a true framework of theoretical physics, the current collection of “tools” used to calculate quantum states that are consistent, must have a principle that is missing, he proclaims. This missing principle, or theory, of symmetry, of dynamics, of consistentcy, of (whatever), would lead us to a UNIQUE solution of cosmology, not a vacuum, but a space-time.
Well, as you can imagine, this talk is just as provocative for those of us familiar with Dewey B. Larson’s works, as his earlier talks, given about eight years ago, when he said essentially the same thing:
In string theory I think we’re in sort of a pre-revolutionary stage. We have hit upon, somewhat accidentally, an incredible theoretical structure…but we still haven’t made a very radical break with conventional physics. We’ve replaced particles with strings—that in a sense is the most revolutionary aspect of the theory. But all of the other concepts of physics have been left untouched…many of us believe that that will be insufficient…That at some point, a much more drastic revolution or discontinuity in our system of beliefs will be required. And that this revolution will likely change the way we think about space and time.
His confidence in string theory may have waned somewhat since then, but the same “revolution, or discontinuity in our system of beliefs,” is still required, according to Gross.
That the Reciprocal System of Physical Theory (RST) is just such a revolution in the frameword of theoretical physics is clear, but only amatures and little league professionals are able to recognize it at this point. It is the missing principle, a system based on the concept of scalar motion coming before the vectorial motion of matter. One which forms the boundaries of a fixed reference system, at the moment a space/time oscillation (a SUDR, or a TUDR) comes into existence.
When such an entity exists, a zero-dimensional point is definable. When two such entities exist, a one-dimensional line between them is definable. When three such entities exists, not all in a line, a two-dimensional area between them is definable. When four or more of these entities exist, not all in a plane, a three-dimensional volume between them is definable.
Thus, because the distances between these points is measurable, in terms of elapsed space/time, so-called space-time, or geometry, emerges. The known rules of geometry and physics apply to this newly defined space, over time, and effect further combinations of the two oscillating entities, in ways that are observed.
Matter emerges in the pattern of logical combinations of these entities, as they form, from simple to complex. The properties of these combinations, including “charge,” “mass” and “spin,” proceed from the nature of these combinations, or relations between them, but, ultimately, they are nothing but combinations of scalar motion, the new principle of space/time reciprocity. which is missing from the current framework of theoretical physics.