David Gross - What is the Theory of Everything?

It is the Holy Grail of physics: All the particles and forces of nature unified and explained by equations so simple that you can print them on your tee shirt. Are we getting there? What would a 'final theory' of fundamental physics do? And if we find it, what will we know? Will we know everything?



David Jonathan Gross is an American particle physicist and string theorist.


Closer to Truth presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.

[Grandunifiedcelery]

"Our weight is simply the energy of these quarks that are being held together by this nuclear force and confined to live within this nucleus...you are made out of energy!"

[lowelllarsen]

Our words are inadequate to express some of the ideas in our mind Even the great thinkers begin to use their hands to help express these abstract thoughts

[jamesruscheinski]

Could time be used to bring together constants and laws / equations of nature?

[sunilprinja]

Does anyone know how much " empty space " there is in a single proton....?....just being curious!

[markomakela]

If anyone interested on this I would appreciate this a lot!. If universe is expanding, could it be that the information in it is expanding thus making in it gradually larger through the cause of time? And if so, are all physical phenomenons in a sense just information?

[swavekbu]

The only way to arrive at a "Theory of Everything" is to make a whole lot of assumptions first. Those assumptions will never be "provable" scientifically. For instance, you can't untangle the notion of reality from the being (us, our brains, for example) that ponders it. When you try to get a theory of everything, you always run into deep philosophical quicksand and paradoxes. We're trying to figure out the universe with a very imperfect tool - our logic.

[naturemeets]

And as well, all things in the universe are entangled with space. my humble opinion. Thanks Mr. Gross.

[jamesruscheinski]

If one travel back in time, not sure what past would travel back to or what future one would return to? Maybe one creates separate time lines just going back and forth in time, not by doing something differently in past or future (i.e. completely different universe). Possibility of existing in different universes by traveling in time which would not be causally connected.

[jamesruscheinski]

Does c-squared represent something in physical reality, like c represents speed of light / electromagnetism?

[steveng]

Since we are Energy perhaps we never cease to exist?

[nyworker]

Energy?...I just thought energy was just how we measure work?

[JungleJargon]

A theory of everything is an attempt to explain everything by physical means. I shouldn’t have to explain that it’s not possible to explain everything by a physical cause since no physical thing can make or direct itself.

[swavekbu]

"Regularities in physical phenomena." He stresses "physical." Why? Aren't all phenomena ultimately physical as physics keeps saying they are? Why make the distinction? Isn't consciousness physical too ultimately?

[thesoundsmith]

Mitch McConnell, "If it exists, we own it. EVERYTHING ARE BELOW TO US..."
Oh, you meant Science, not Economics. My bad....

[FACEgod_]

"energy and matter aren't different"
So what is energy? Better question, what is your experience of "energy"? Aware Being, pure experiencing. This is irrefutable feeling and knowing that you ARE. This can never be doubted. Only something present and aware can doubt. So, What is matter?

[infiniteuniverse]

The Theory of Everything starts with assuming Edwin Hubble discovered the galaxies expanding, not the universe. The Big Bang theory gives power to gravity it does not have. This, in turn, makes us unable to understand gravity. It is all connected.

[jamesruscheinski]

Does weight / mass have to do with strong nuclear force throwing quarks around more rapidly; and would this be good place to look for quantum gravity? Was the mathematics for string theory discovered at the level of quarks?

[tomazflegar]

So, it's about assumptions not the truth

[matishakabdullah]

In physics the Theory of Everything of the physical universe is a situation when everything of universal physicality is reduced to a unified information("knowledge") in human conscious mind.

Unfortunately in truth it wasn't representing the total reality of universal existence(" the truth") because consciousness is another half of the total reality. In fact the so called 'a physical reality' is only a 'thing' that we realized in our conscious mind. It implies that consciousness is the most fundamental of the reality.

[drhfuhruhurr]

In the unedited video, I wonder whether or not David fell off his chair 😏