The Physics of Now

The most important goal of contemporary Physics is certainly the unification of Einstein's Theory of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. This is also the hardest one substantially because the two theories are based on incompatible concepts of space and time apart from the different application scales. This happens since General Relativity is based on general covariance principle, while Quantum Mechanics on superposition principle that are theoretically incompatible. The main difficulties...
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The most important goal of contemporary Physics is certainly the unification of Einstein's Theory of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. This is also the hardest one substantially because the two theories are based on incompatible concepts of space and time apart from the different application scales. This happens since General Relativity is based on general covariance principle, while Quantum Mechanics on superposition principle that are theoretically incompatible. The main difficulties arise because in the Theory of Relativity space and time are interpreted as physical coordinates of the fabric of reality, namely the space-time, inextricably related and relative to the observer's motion, while in Quantum Mechanics time is an absolute mathematical parameter external to the physical system described by a wave function that "lives" in a mathematical abstract space, the Hilbert's space, having no direct reference with the physical space we experience. In this excellent essay Amrit Sorli exposes an innovative approach to this problem as simple as interesting, according to which universal space is composed by elementary Planck volumes, constituting the fabric of physical reality, in which time plays the role of a mathematical quantity giving the numerical order of change and no longer represents the fourth space-time coordinate. In this picture only the granular tri-dimensional space, made of fundamental units of space, the "Planck volumes", and its energy density exist as fundamental physical reality and determine the "Physical Universe", while time would belong to the so-called "Mathematical Universe": the reality is then made by NOWS that exist in a timeless universe. From this simple statement it is possible to derive, in principle, the dynamics of the observed physical phenomena as, for example, the curvature of light near the planetary masses, the property of black holes, as well as the "strange" effects provided by special relativity about times and lengths as viewed by observers in relative motion. But one of the most interesting features of this model consists in its applicability to quantum phenomena, making it possible to explain, in a very simple fashion, phenomena such as the action at a distance, quantum entanglement or the double-slit experiment showing the particle - wave nature of light. The subdivision of reality into a Physical and a Mathematical Universe allows Sorli furthermore to define the conscious observer as the only universal reference system at rest and consciousness as acting through the mathematical universe and DNA into the level of the physical world, a very fascinating hypothesis with respect to the elaboration of a theory of mind, as already proposed by Penrose some years ago, according to which it could be not possible to reduce the mind to the activity of physical brains, since thinking cannot be a pure algorithmic process, but a potentially not - local phenomenon. In conclusion we can define this essay as a very exciting intellectual challenge containing a powerful theoretical starting point towards an ultimate "theory of everything" that, if adequately improved and refined mainly through the elaboration of complete dynamical theory of this new quantum vacuum, could be able to give answer to the most important questions of Physics and contribute to the emergence of a new humanism in which mind and matter (and energy) finally could be viewed as different aspects of the same fundamental reality.Luigi Maxmilian Caligiuri