Are Human Beings Ready for Unification?

jreelawg

By unification I mean a unified theory of everything. And I am implying that this hypothetical unification would bring forth a whole new level of technology, and assuming that it's application could range from tools of war and destruction, generally speaking god like power. But would also solve a range of practical issues and provide vast luxury.

But, would it not also give man the power to enslave the world.

I am thinking that science is already too advanced, and as it is the trend is towards enslavement.

As pessimistic as it sounds I think it is engrained in the nature of people.

Lancelot59

Not the drive to enslave, that comes from a couple of things: greed, and jealousy.

MotoH

A theory of everything would predict itself being found, and would predict the future.

rewebster

jreelawg-

-so you don't want to know what gravity, magnetism, etc. are, and how they work?

Brian_C

The original poster is woefully misinformed. Particle physicists have already developed a number of "unified" theories. The problem is that none of them will ever be experimentally verified because of the energy scales involved. Steven Weinberg wrote an article about this in Scientific American a few years back. A "theory of everything" will certainly not have any impact on our daily lives.

rewebster

Wasn't he talking in relevance to string theory?

I'd agree if it had any resemblance to string theory (or relativity).

rootX

Maybe humans in science fiction movies ...

Have you been watching too many of them?

higgsnerd137

I disagree. A "theory of everything" would be partly quantum mechanical. And in quantum mechanics, uncertainty rules. You can't predict that.

rewebster

just curious---what kind of new things do you (or anyone) think in the way of technology will come out of the correct and complete Theory of Everything?

imiyakawa

Isn't this assuming one too many things about our universe? Isn't this assuming that a hidden variable interpretation of QM is correct, isn't it also assuming that this universe is causally isolated (we suspect this, but haven't shown it beyond all doubt - multiverse theories exist etc.)

Amanheis

How Feynman said: Just because you watched someone play chess long enough to figure out the rules, doesn't mean you can immediately beat any grandmaster there is. (Or something along those lines.)

I doubt there would be any technological advances any time soon after a TOE is found. Hence, mankind is more than ready for it.

Leptos

Isadore Singer stated that Superstring Theory should be treated as a branch of mathematics, regardless of its physical relevance.

Brian_C

No, he was talking about any theory that purports to unify the four forces. The energy scales involved are many orders of magnitude higher than anything that could be produced in a terrestrial experiment.

rewebster

interesting----do you know the name of the article? or a link? just curious how and why he would he talking about 'energy scales' of that sort----thanks