Too many theories, too little time

[TinyTree]

If you work on a physical theory, it seems you have very little time to actually make any progress on it. We only have a really useful brain for about 40 years, and then it starts to deteriorate. Most great mathematicians do their ground breaking work from the ages of 21-23, then spend the rest of their years "cleaning up" their original work, and refining it.

It seems a bit of a shame. It is possible that the final "theory of everything" will not be available to contemporary humans, because we simply do not live long enough to apprehend enough data to put it together.

[Guille]

But maybe the TOE doesn't add many things. Maybe it just adds a few ideas to be learned, and unifies. Then our minds, even if very full or starting to deteriorate, will be able to understand it.

[michellemfry]

Guille, my favorite story is of the guys who discovered Cosmic Background Microwave Radiation trying to clean the bird droppings off their equipment to get rid of the "noise". We have not changed. By trying to consider everything, there is a good chance to avoid such foolishness. In the theory of everything, there is no such thing as discardable facts.

[dleviwing]

If it where not for the academic need to learn about the bird droppings of science history and the Bull droppings of current interpretations, the TOE would be simple and known by most high school students.

[subversion]

I have taken a most unique path to discovering the TOE: serendipity, in tandem with inevitable course.

I don't know if I'm welcome replying to this thread but I feel like I know the answer so well that I have to offer it.

Since I have discovered the TOE I will tell you how I was able to do it in finite time.

Throughout life I've always had a natural and gifted propensity for thinking uniquely and intelligently. I never concerned myself with matters unimportant, and I never believed in things which were wrong. THus I never worried about everything, I just acted on everything.

Naturally I was curious about things. This means I discovered the Theory of Everything first when I was in highschool, but my teacher told me I was wrong. I didn't believe that I was wrong, but I ignored the fact that I was right.

Luckily I didn't worry about it, I just continued acting naturally. Times changed and I had more important things to worry about, like that girl I had a crush on, or maybe the show that my band was playing that weekend. Back then I didn't even know that scientists were looking for a TOE, so I wouldn't have realized what it was except for my own amusement. But as I grew older my curiosity about reality grew as well. I didn't concern myself too much with modern findings in physics and the counter-intuitive conclusions of QM. Though they did pique my interest, I stayed away from them intentionally, because I thought something must be wrong by the sound of it. I always looked deep within, to my own unique insight, my own intuition, for everything. I did it only for a reason, and yet no reason at all. Serendipity I allowed to take it's course.

Then one night while out and about everything took it's course, it struck me like a flash without warning, a bolt from Zeus himself. "My God, I've made a remarkable insight!" I realized! This was when I was about 20 if I recall correctly. Little did I know that I had discovered the TOE. LIke I said, I had already discovered it many years before but I hadn't reached the same conclusion yet. Then once I investigated further, I came to the same original conclusion, which I hadn't thought of quite in the same way/context as this time. This time I realized I had gold on my hands. THen I realized that I had been right ever since, and obviously this was what I was destined to find out one way or another. I didn't try to get there, I didn't try to discover the Theory of Everything. It was serendipitous and yet predetermined. It was just my natural tendency, my inclination, my destiny if you will. Who knows, perhaps it goes all the way down to the genes that make up my body. Perhaps I really am the chosen one in an evolutionary sense. I personally don't have any clue, but I am absolutely astounded by the surreality of everything, and I simply am robbed of any other thought besides, WOW

So I don't know if that really explains it or not. It's almost unbelievable, incredible, and unexplainable. Almost!

Anyway, I did it mainly between the ages of 20 and 23 just like you said, which only lends credence to the fact that I may indeed be right, or at least I'm at the right age to have done such a thing. I also did it by only analyzing the evidence in front of me. You can't come up with the truth, afterall, you just have to see it. THus my Theory is stolen from reality itself. Or did I steal it, or just take it? Or by taking it, does that actually mean that it was given to me?

At any rate, I've got it now. Again, this was by completing the jig saw puzzle, not by making things up. In conclusion, I never concerned myself with things that I thought were wrong or unimportant, and in this respect serendipity and my destiny were allowed to become the same thing. In this respect I never wasted any time, so that's how I did it I probably will spend the rest of my life working, but for the most part, I feel I've made that fateful step. It is a small step for man, but a giant leap for mankind.

Can ya'll think of what it must be like?

[michellemfry]

It sounds peaceful. You speak as if you are not restless at all.

[subversion]

I sleep well every night. It is only waking up when I realize, it's time to wake up. And waking up means I've got a job to do

[Guille]

I'm starting to tremble about the idea that if I end up going more into math than philosophy or physics, then all I have left is 8 growing years, and from then on I will only perfection and develop some things from that main contribution. But if I were to choose the problem I would solve, it woudl be Goldbach's Conjecture. Whiles in physics, many greats have been most productive in the 30s and 40s: Einstein, Heisenberg, Faynman, Hawking... And philosophers are ussually great developing at older ages: Russell, Sartre, Baudrillard... have max production after the half century of life.

[michellemfry]

Guille, will you be a professor someday?

[Guille]

Guille, will you be a professor someday?

I would be a professor if and only if:
1. I understand myself enough as to try and understand others
2. I understand the tmee I teach enough as to teach others (which I still don't consider to be able to do in any subject)
3. I teach people who are interested. I wouldn't teach in a school, because no students care in school about what they learn. But in university it's different, people are more enthusiast and hard workers, they devote more (or at least this is the idea I have of university from listening to people and watching flims...).

Why ask me anyway?