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The Myth of the Theory of Everything (TE)



A concept like this, entertained by mainstream physics, is problematic even as a metaphor, for it is postulating some sort of sacred text for reality (R). Beyond the obvious paradoxes -like the one that says that the set of postulates which conforms the theory would contain itself as a postulate- such Pythagorean proposal mistakes the model for the modelled thing. Theories are conceptual models, at best, consistent with their own principles, but not necessarily with our basic intuitions and conceptions (Lebenswelt). An example of this is the mathematical discipline of Analysis, whose foundations sustain the edifice of physics. The difference between the original and the model, something purportedly solved by the traditional platonic appeal to the imperfection of the human sphere in relation to the sphere of the gods, has been expressed in contemporary epistemology as the asymptotic approximation of our science to truth (or reality). But in relation to TE, their supporters seem to forget that there is not (and never could be) a final representation to serve as original for the model, for R is apeironic, so for a TE, the model is not R, but an inductive asymptotically perfected model of previous theories, ever more encompassing. Those theories are only defined in terms of very limited and unconnected (beyond some basic logical principles, which are themselves of biological origin) theories which describe our basic intuitions about the universe. Then TE has nothing to modelize upon beyond the very basic descriptions of movement in relation to conceptual frames. An encompassing theory of the biological dimension of existence (i.e., intelligence) and the so called physical dimension, cannot be obtained from the present scientific paradigms, reductionist or holistic, for there is not a conceptual covering of the social symbolical constructions. Even today, most part of the population (93%, according to estimations) understands the universe in terms of very crude metaphors of parenthood and social bonding: we have projected our cellular constitution and understanding upon the universe and expect to obtain a cellular integrated answer, fit to our needs and harmonious with our hallucinated theories of the past. TE can only be, therefore, postulated as an absolute referent, and we could elaborate models upon it in happy asymptotic approximations. What is the meaning of an absolute model? It is equivalent to postulate the existence of a logico-mathematical reality, TE, which acts like an archangel communicator of R. We have seen already too much of this kind of thinking in ancient mythologies, and science will not benefit from such approach. It is precisely this platonic background what makes the idea of TE so fashionable and popular, for the proposal is perfectly understood in traditional terms: the priests which formulate the intricate TE are today’s geniuses and saints.
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