Change your thinking, change your life!


Spring-And-Loop Theory
 


7    Spring-And-Loop Theory

In Chapter 1, I said:
Strings have become springs.
Loops are gravitons.
The-glue-is-the-new.

This is where you are probably expecting a bunch of big words, some bizarrely-cursive formulas, and ten or twenty pages of patiently overwhelming prose to lay out my new model. Right?

Is That All There Is To It?

When I was a kid I used to go camping. Who didn't...but I'm just saying that I would be riding along in the family station wagon and want to occupy myself on the typically 5-hour road trips. Most commonly this was done by looking at road signs.

One that became familiar for many a happy camper said "Entering Spuzzum, Population: 11"07_01. Then, if you turned your head dangerously quickly, you could see it again, pointed the other way. They might have incremented that counter by now, but I kind of doubt they've gone to triple digits.

Well, Spring-And-Loop Theory is a bit like Spuzzum. Couple of new concepts, no big formulas to worry about, and tada, a new way of looking at things.

And don't worry, despite its seemingly minimal new language and absence of formulas, we shall find Spring-And-Loop Theory to be kind of a cool dude.

Unification Means Simplification

When a guy and a gal "shack up", as my father would say, they go through a process of simplification. The woman no longer wonders who is coming to dinner, and the man no longer needs to think for himself.

The lack of need for two shavers alone is sufficient gravitational attraction for some. Oh, and then there's the economy of beds. What's not to like07_02?

So, assuming the metaphor is apt, you might be ready to go with the idea that now is the time we are going to be throwing something out. If not, you ain't gonna like it.

And Then He Turned On String Theory

I may be wrong but it seems that String Theory erred from the start.

How did anyone ever think that a "string" was a good descriptor for something 1020 times smaller than a proton07_03 yet having a binding energy equivalent to ten billion billion protons?07_04 That is some pretty strong string, kemosabe07_05.

Then there are those dreaded Calabi-Yau shapes07_06 -- amoeba-like structures endowed with the tensile properties of a Golden Gate bridge cable07_07.

And don't even get me started on the 10 or is it 11 dimensions07_08 that String Theory requires. Or the fact there are at least five different String Theories07_09. And 10 "to the 500" possible configurations of the universe07_10.

And Dissed It Some More

I just think a spring-loop metaphor is more intuitive than a string to, er, string one. See how something is lacking in that second one?

- Springs can contain energy within themselves, and we can imagine them bouncing around (in the author's brain at least)

- Springs can wrap around and tangle up other things, judging by the discarded pile of springy toys in my bedroom

- If you were looking to hook onto something, a loop sounds like it could out-hook a string, even on a bad hair day07_11

Face it, leaving "loop" out of the original name was a substantial oversight. Without the nut, the string bolt has to be stronger-than-steel, yet able to Calabi-Yau itself into all sorts of particles and such.07_12

Tsk, tsk.

Saving The Day

Spring-And-Loop Theory provides a model of how gravity and the other forces work together.

There is also a new description of what gravity does. New to me, anyway. What I know for sure is that it will become more used than the pulled-from-a-hat "attraction" and that got itself quite a following at Coney Island07_13.

Oh, and half of Einstein's special theory of relativity07_14 comes out in the wash with nary a wrinkle and barely a drop of midnight oil burned by yours truly.

And that's just for starters.

I Thought It Before I Read It, Honest I Did

After reading Brian Greene's "The Elegant Universe"07_15, I began to look for the next String Theory book to read, or hear.

I didn't find that second book until after I had started brain-dumping the drivel you have been reading here. By then I had begun to research, just a bit (and against my publisher's advice), and found that some of what I had conceived with my own brain cells had been thought of by others.

After that blow I promptly returned almost all of the physics books I had checked out, but I didn't have the heart to do this with Sean Carroll's "From Eternity To Here"07_16.

Having been impressed with his "Dark Matter, Dark Energy" video series07_17, I sensed that there might be something of value in his latest, despite the seemingly unrelated subject matter (time). So I wrote "May be useful as an idea/concept tester and/or to provide a list of subjects I will have to cover" on a bookmark, popped it in the book and took it to work.

I have had a few chuckles about that bookmark in the days since then.

Anyway, as I started reading I was a bit embarassed to see that some of my "new" realizations were staring back at me from the pages of Sean's book. I consoled myself with the fact that "From Eternity To Here" was published in 2010, exactly ten years after "The Elegant Universe", and it was inevitable that things would progress in 315 million seconds.

This Guy Has No Shame

Seeing a thought you conceived yourself appearing in someone else's print is kinda cool. Tinged with sadness, yes, but cool in the sense of "At least I am on the right track here".

In the category of things I would be predicting if someone else hadn't done so already, I include:

- what dark energy is (although I think I have a more complete model)

- why Einstein's famous equation doesn't apply to dark energy

Other Predictions, Proposals and Propositions

- that the expansion phase of the early universe went down a little differently than they currently would have us believe

- a simple visualization of what light speed is and why we will never achieve it

- that membranes, M-branes and D-branes07_18 are for bird brains

- a notion of what the quantum jitters07_19 are

- something about wormholes

- a bit on the ticks of time

- a peppering of newspaper-loving soundbites like "Chemical elements are the macroscopic result of a Spring-And-Loop Theory world"

- thoughts on the provability of Spring And Loop Theory

- some other stuff that isn't nearly as significant and so should be in the middle of the list, not the end, to avoid an anti-climactic effect
 


Previous Chapter (6)  Table Of Contents  References  Contact  Next Chapter (8)