The Romance of a Theory of Everything

One Approach to the Meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything

Two of my favourite things: beauty and mystery. (source: Unsplash)

When I started reading physics, I came across an intriguing term: Theory of Everything. Could it exist? And if so, would it do what it seems to promise: explain everything there is to understand about the universe?

Of course, science defines the ToE (what a funky acronym) in a more narrow physical sense. That didn't and still doesn't stop me from dreaming of a time when all our questions will be answered and we will know everything there is to know about the universe. When that time comes, we might finally understand not only the what but also the why: what it all means.

The Good Girl's Guide to the Galaxy

I always wanted to know what it all means.

Born and raised in a historically Catholic country, I was baptized and given first communion. Later, my nonreligious parents asked if I wanted to do confirmation too, and I said yes. Everyone in our rural village seemed to be doing it. Suffice to say, I went through a fair amount of religious education but no one punished me if I was less than enthusiastic about it. I went to church on high holidays because my school was right next to a cathedral and again, everyone did it.

As a teenager, I rebelled against Catholicism. As the prevalent faith, it affronted something deep in my contrarian self.¹ For the longest time, I couldn't get past that unease. After graduating, I didn't go to church for many years and with the distance came clarity. After countless conversations with friends and strangers, I am sure that monotheistic religion isn’t for me. With my personal emotions resolved, I can finally appreciate religious art and architecture for what it is.

Plus, I like organ music. (source: Unsplash)

Even before going off to university, I started looking for alternative belief systems. My interest in Japan, fuelled by manga, anime, and Haruki Murakami, led me to Zen Buddhism.

How to Tame the Ox

I started meditating. Read Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Suzuki Shunryū. Visited various Buddhist groups in town but didn't stick around because none were of the Zen variety.

In Vienna, I finally found some Zen groups. I learned about the curious role religion plays in Japan², took extracurriculars on Buddhist philosophy. I vividly remember one particular summer semester, trying to distract myself from heartbreak by hiking alone and cramming for my philosophy exams in the shade of trees and halfway up random mountains. One of those exams was on Dogen's Shōbōgenzō or Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, a famous Zen text.

I fell off the practice by degrees. One point of criticism for me was the notion of karma. Karma teaches that everything bad that happens to you is your fault, retribution for your own actions in past lives. What about social inequality? If I were to accept the notion of karma, I would have to accept that everyone is responsible for their own misfortune. I’m sure it’s more nuanced than that but I haven’t seen any approaches that incorporate fighting for social justice. However much Zen appeals to me with its timeless simplicity, this aspect always leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

I still don't know how to tame the ox.

Does the ox have buddha nature?

The Birth of The Theoretician

In 2021, I decided to write a science fiction novel.

I got into science fiction and science around the same time, particularly physics—they’re highly compatible³. The books I read went from thermodynamics to relativity to quantum mechanics to futuristic hopes and dreams of a Theory of Everything. And what a compelling promise: One Theory to rule them all…⁴ Excuse me, one theory to describe all there is in the universe! After the disappointments of religion and philosophy, I had arrived at my own personal scientific revolution. Lured by its promise of rational enlightenment, I started paying attention whenever the term came up.

There’s much speculation about which unsolved problems might advance the formulation of such a theory. In Physics of the Impossible, Michio Kaku writes that time travel can only be solved using a ToE that explains how the event horizon of black holes works. Many eminent physicists seem to believe that the key lies in uniting quantum theory and general relativity. Michio Kaku, for example, is an advocate of string theory⁵, whereas David Deutsch believes in the multiverse⁶.

What everyone seems to agree on is that we have no Theory of Everything yet and no one is sure which approach is the right one. What if we were to look outside of physics altogether? Enter computer science.

The Computation of Reality

Our daily lives are infused with computers. It never occurred to me that the way computers work might illustrate something fundamental about the nature of reality. With quantum mechanics and AI on the rise, I was simply curious to learn more about them.

According to The Most Important Century, which argues that transformative AI will develop within this century, the universe can be understood as patterns of information processing. Many physicists believe that the distinction between neurons and computer processors are merely superficial. They both process information. To go one step further, maybe everything that exists is information.

One of the overwhelming messages of modern physics has been that everything that exists – particles, fields, atoms, etc, is best thought of in terms of information, and may simply be information. The universe may perhaps be best described as a mathematical abstraction. (…) To be a bit metaphorical, we are like tiny ripples on vast abstract mathematical waves, ripples whose patterns and dynamics happen to execute the information processing corresponding to what we call sentience. If you ask me our existence and the substrate we live on is already much weirder and more ephemeral than anything we might upload humans onto.

Isn’t it fascinating that computer science might help us understand the universe? Simulation theory, popularised by Douglas Adams and The Matrix, draws heavily from that field. For me, however, this one holds little to no appeal—if we live in a simulation, it’s likely that we will never be able to tell for sure that we live in a simulation, in which case: Does it really matter?

There’s also the possibility that AI might discover the Theory of Everything for us, in which case all we have to do is stick around long enough to see it happen. I’ve never been good at doing nothing though so let’s backtrack a little. What are we even looking for?

What is everything?

A Theory of Everything, as commonly defined, aims to describe every aspect of reality. What if, however, it simply aimed to describe everything that is understood about reality?

This is the premise David Deutsch explores in his book The Fabric of Reality. It appeals to me because it goes one step beyond physics and attempts to describe the fundamentals of what can be known and understood.

This theory will still not explain every aspect of reality: that is unattainable. But it will encompass all known explanations, and will apply to the whole fabric of reality in so far as it is understood. Whereas all previous theories related to particular subjects, this will be a theory of all subjects: a Theory of Everything.

His ToE has four strands. He claims that none of these four theories can be fully understood on its own, without also understanding the other three. Taken together, they form our best understanding of reality at this point in time. The four strands are:

1. quantum physics

2. the theory of evolution, as described by Darwin and Richard Dawkins

3. epistemology or the theory of knowledge, as described by Karl Popper

4. the theory of computation, as described by the Turing Principle

How do these strands relate to one another? Deutsch suggests that taken together, they give us the understanding and language to describe the convergence of universes, which will also enable us to understand and practice physical time travel. One frequently cited problem with time travel, the knowledge paradox, is not really a paradox when considered in terms of a multiverse: If someone were to travel back in time and tell Shakespeare of his own masterworks, thus influencing him to write them, that universe would merely cease to be our universe and become a parallel one.

Physical time travel? This approach might be more than a mental model after all. Admittedly, it’s hard to wrap my head around which perhaps proves that we still have a long way to go.

Learn as if you were to live forever

We still have no idea what a Theory of Everything might look like. Personally, I will keep following my curiosity and seeing where it takes me—whether it’s deeper into computing and quantum physics, towards abstract mathematics, or into a completely different direction. Philosophy and metaphysics have often provided new ideas that were proven scientifically much later.

I don’t expect any theory to explain the fabric of reality anymore. Religion is one mental model plenty of people are happy with. Sadly or happily, I’m too much of a realist now. Besides, if I found the definitive answer, what would I do with the rest of my life? I have never been content to simply exist day to day. I have to strive for something and that striving for a challenging but attainable goal is what makes life enjoyable for me.

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
-Mahatma Gandhi

Have you ever asked yourself what it all means? If so, I’d love to hear more about your journey in the comments! This is one of my favourite conversation topics—we might all search for the meaning of life, the universe, and everything but no two people will ever have the same experiences and milestones along the way.

1. Also, paedophilia stories were making rounds in the news.

2. The majority of the population claims to practice both Shinto and Buddhism.

3. Also, the handful of physicists I have known over the years left strong impressions.

4. … One Theory to find them, One Theory to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.

5. See The God Equation.

6. See The Fabric of Reality, to which we will circle back soon.