14 August 2013

A paradox: the theory of everything cannot be published

This is one of the best stories I heard. Imagine you have discovered the theory of everything, the TOE. You want to publish it and prove that it is correct. Of course, you need to show that it contains quantum theory, general relativity, quantum field theory, the standard model and so forth. For this proof, you will need at least a hundred pages, maybe much more. But no journal accepts such long papers. No problem, you think, "I'll publish it in pieces". No, that is not possible either, because then the "unsubstantiated" claim of a TOE cannot be made in any of the pieces - except maybe the last one. Then the earlier pieces have no interest and will not get published. 

Now we have another reason why no TOE is found in a journal so far.
Posted by Clara, once known as Nemo at 05:48

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous14 August 2013 at 11:47

    If someone is convinced he/she discovered the TOE,then he/she should publish his/her theory by himself/herself--for free---like Schiller---
    Also,the arxiv might be willing to publish ...
    Or,maybe a refereed journal would be willing to dedicate an entire issue to that theory
    I think the proof of a famous math theorem was done not too long ago-in a lengthy book--by a russian guy ---with intermediate steps being published on the web and thoroughly checked by world experts...
    In short--this is not really a good excuse.....

    Abraham

    ReplyDelete
  2. Clara, once known as Nemo14 August 2013 at 19:23

    Abraham, this was just a fun factoid!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15 August 2013 at 08:24

      Well..ok..you know...fun is serious business...so I tried to be seriously funny..or funnily serious..you choose...
      On a more serious note,a good TOE cannot possibly be that long
      Besides,a good TOE should degenerate(namely include) into either SM or GR when proper limits are taken,with SM and GR being regularized and SM having fewer free parameters etc
      I do believe that generally relativizing SM will result in some kind of supersymmetry,namely a symmetry beyond and above the matter-antimatter symmetry,but this time it will have a sound physical basis which is absent in the present SUSY research

      Abraham




      Delete
    2. Clara, once known as Nemo15 August 2013 at 13:06

      Supersymmetry is not physics, its a diagnosis.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous16 August 2013 at 00:28

    A legitimate physical theory is only that one whose predictions can be corroborated or falsified by measurements, no matter when.
    Obviously, a legitimate physical theory is not necessarily true.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Clara, once known as Nemo16 August 2013 at 05:57

    In this universe, what you wrote is either wrong or nonsense...

    ReplyDelete

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