Sixteen Questions Related to Unification Theory (1979)

The Unification of Quantum Mechanics, General Relativity and Consciousness – An Excerpt from The Secret Doctrine Volume IV, The Nature of Everything

article review and summarization of the progress and concepts of unification theory in physics.

In A. Ashtekar et al (eds). Revisiting the Foundations of Relativistic Physics (Festschrift for John Stachel). (Dordrecht: Kluwer), 2003

2005

Tied Up With String Calling it a cover-up would be far too dramatic. But for more than half a century-even in the midst of some of the greatest scientific achievements in history-physicists have been quietly aware of a dark cloud looming on a distant horizon. The problem is this: There are two foundational pillars upon which modern physics rests. One is Albert Einstein's general relativity, which provides a theoretical framework for understanding the universe on the largest of scales: stars, galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and beyond to the immense expanse of the universe itself. The other is quantum mechanics, which provides a theoretical framework for understanding the universe on the smallest of scales: molecules, atoms, and all the way down to subatomic particles like electrons and quarks. Through years of research, physicists have experimentally confirmed to almost unimaginable accuracy virtually all predictions made by each of these theories. But these same theoretical tools inexorably lead to another disturbing conclusion: As they are currently formulated, general relativity and quantum mechanics cannot both be right. The two theories underlying the tremendous progress of physics during the last hundred years-progress that has explained the expansion of the heavens and the fundamental structure of matter-are mutually incompatible. If you have not heard previously about this ferocious antagonism you may be wondering why. The answer is not hard to come by. In all but the most extreme situations, physicists study things that are either small and light (like atoms and their constituents) or things that are huge and heavy (like stars and galaxies), but not both. This means that they need use only quantum mechanics or only general relativity and can, with a furtive glance, shrug off the barking admonition of the other. For fifty years this approach has not been quite as blissful as ignorance, but it has been pretty close. But the universe can be extreme. In the central depths of a black hole an enormous mass is crushed to a minuscule size. At the moment of the big bang the whole of the universe erupted from a microscopic nugget whose size makes a grain of sand look colossal. These are realms that are tiny and yet incredibly massive, therefore requiring that both quantum mechanics and general relativity simultaneously be brought to bear. For reasons that will become increasingly clear as we proceed, the equations of general relativity and quantum mechanics, when combined, begin to shake, rattle, and gush with steam like a red-lined automobile. Put less figuratively, well-posed physical questions elicit nonsensical answers from the unhappy amalgam of these two theories. Even if you are willing to keep the deep interior of a black hole and the beginning of the universe shrouded in mystery, you can't help feeling that the hostility between quantum mechanics and general relativity cries out for a deeper level of understanding. Can it really be that the universe at its most fundamental level is divided, requiring one set of laws when things are large and a different, incompatible set when things are small? Superstring theory, a young upstart compared with the venerable edifices of quantum mechanics and general relativity, answers with a resounding no. Intense research over the past decade by physicists and mathematicians around the world has revealed that this new approach to describing matter at its most fundamental level resolves the tension between general relativity and quantum mechanics. In fact, superstring theory shows more: Within this new framework, general relativity and quantum mechanics require one another for the theory to make sense. According to superstring theory, the marriage of the laws of the large and the small is not only happy but inevitable. 2 Strings can also have two freely moving ends (so-called open strings) in addition to the loops (closed strings) illustrated in Figure 1.1. To ease our presentation, for the most part we will focus on closed strings, although essentially all of what we say applies to both.

California History, 2016

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, during the height of protests and actions by civil rights activists around de facto school segregation in the Los Angeles area, the residents of a group of small cities just southeast of the City of Los Angeles fought to break away from the Los Angeles City Schools and create a new, independent school district-one that would help preserve racially segregated schools in the area. The "Four Cities" coalition was comprised of residents of the majority white, working class cities of Vernon, Maywood, Huntington Park, and Bell-all of which had joined the Los Angeles City Schools in the 1920s and 1930s rather than continue to operate local districts. The coalition later expanded to include residents of the cities of South Gate, Cudahy, and some unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County, although Vernon was eventually excluded. The Four Cities coalition petitioned for the new district in response to a planned merger of the Los Angeles City Schools-until this time comprised of separate elementary and high school districts-into the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). The coalition's strategy was to utilize a provision of the district unification process that allowed citizens to petition for reconfiguration or redrawing of boundaries. Unification was encouraged by the California State Board of Education and legislature in order to combine the administrative functions of separate primary and secondary school districts-the dominant model up to this time-to better serve the state's rapidly growing population of children and their educational needs, and was being deliberated in communities across the state and throughout Los Angeles County. The debates at the time over school district unification in the Greater Los Angeles area, like the one over the Four Cities proposal, were inextricably tied to larger issues, such as taxation, control of community institutions, the size and role of state and county government, and racial segregation. At the same time that civil rights activists in the area and the state government alike were articulating a vision of public schools that was more inclusive and demanded larger-scale, consolidated administration, the unification process reveals an often-overlooked grassroots activism among residents of the majority white, working-class cities surrounding Los Angeles that put forward a vision of exclusionary, smaller-scale school districts based on notions of local control and what they termed "community identity."

Journal of Clinical Psychology, 2004

A unified theory of psychology has recently been proposed , and the next two issues of the Journal of Clinical Psychology are devoted to its elaboration and evaluation. The current issue consists of a target article, "Psychology Defined," which adds to the existing formulation and specifies how the theory can be used to effectively define the science of psychology. Distinguished experts in psychology contribute 13 commentaries offering a wide variety of perspectives on the proposed model. These are followed by two full-length articles in which one author articulates the need for the unified theory and the other offers a different but compatible approach at integrating psychotherapy and personality. In the next special issue, authors either elaborate on or critique elements of the unified theory. How the new theory lays the foundation for the development of a useful mass movement that could transform the discipline of psychology in a manner that unleashes its constructive potential is the subject of the concluding article. When viewed as a whole, the two issues show that the unified theory provides fertile ground for scientific and philosophical inquiry on multiple levels of analysis, and that it may play a central role in helping the discipline of psychology fulfill its constructive potential.