I've always been fascinated by the nature of the universe, particularly space, time and what reality is actually made of.
I studied Physics and Computing and was fortunate enough to work at CERN in 1991, 1993 and 1994, just as the World Wide Web was emerging. Being around scientists exploring the fundamental nature of reality, while witnessing the beginnings of a technology that would transform the world, left a lasting impression on me.
So I was particularly interested to read an article by Dr Alex Wissner-Gross, introducing a new approach to fundamental physics called Chain Theory.
Read the original article – Chain Theory, The Innermost Loop
So what's the big idea?
Chain Theory proposes something quite extraordinary: what if the universe isn't fundamentally made of matter or particles, but of interconnected quantum information?
The theory suggests that everything — electrons, light, the forces of nature, and potentially even space and time — emerges from networks of tiny quantum systems connected through a phenomenon called quantum entanglement.
Rather than thinking of the universe as a collection of things that are connected, imagine that the connections themselves are what create the things.
The author describes these networks as being a little like chainmail, with different arrangements of connections giving rise to the particles and forces we observe.
The ambition is to explain the familiar laws of physics from one underlying principle, rather than accepting those laws as fundamental starting points.
And there's a particularly intriguing number: 137
One of the great unanswered questions in physics concerns the fine-structure constant, a number that determines the strength of electromagnetic interactions.
Its inverse is approximately 137.035999.
Scientists can measure this number with extraordinary precision, but our current theories don't explain why it has that particular value.
Wissner-Gross claims to have derived a mathematical number from Chain Theory that agrees with the measured value to ten significant digits, without adjusting arbitrary parameters to fit the result.
That's potentially remarkable, although the connection between his mathematical calculation and the actual physical constant remains unproven.
Why I find this so interesting
History tells us that breakthroughs in our understanding of nature can have consequences far beyond what anyone initially imagines.
Take Albert Einstein. When he developed his theories of relativity in 1905 and 1915, he fundamentally changed our understanding of space, time and gravity. He showed that space and time are interconnected, that time passes differently depending on speed and gravity, and that gravity itself is a consequence of the curvature of spacetime.
At the time, these were extraordinary theoretical insights into how the universe works.
Yet today, GPS and satellite navigation depend on Einstein's understanding of time. Without accounting for relativity, the clocks aboard GPS satellites would gradually drift out of sync with those on Earth, causing navigation errors of kilometres.
His theories are also essential to modern particle accelerators, while his famous equation, E=mc², helped explain the physics behind nuclear energy and technologies such as PET medical scans.
And consider electromagnetism. Faraday and Maxwell's work exploring electricity and magnetism ultimately laid the foundations for electric motors, generators, radio, telecommunications and countless technologies we use every day.
None of these scientists could have fully imagined the practical consequences of their discoveries.
That's what excites me about Chain Theory.
If we discover something genuinely new about the fundamental workings of the universe, what might become possible that we can't even conceive of today?
Of course, Chain Theory is very new. It hasn't been established experimentally, and much of the work still needs independent scientific scrutiny. It may prove to be wrong, partially correct or genuinely groundbreaking.
But the possibility that matter, space and time are all manifestations of something deeper — a network of quantum information — is an extraordinary idea.
And if history has taught us anything, it's that a fundamental shift in our understanding of how the universe works can sometimes change everything.
Perhaps we're witnessing the early stages of another such shift. Or perhaps not.
Either way, it's a fascinating piece of thinking and well worth reading.
Original article: Chain Theory – The Innermost Loop
Author: Dr Alex Wissner-Gross
Photo by Carlos Felipe Ramírez Mesa on Unsplash