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Summary—This essay provides a summary of the seven essays in the upcoming The Theory of One book. The final year of my Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematics at the University of Calgary found me taking a course in statistics from Dr Ennes. He began every lecture with a story. One of the stories I remember is where he told us why mathematicians have poor memories, which is because we deduce everything from first principles. In fact, I got the idea from Dr Ennes to start each of my essays with a story. I was not doing well in his class and I totally tanked the final exam. I went to him and told him that I would not be able to graduate if he gave me an F. I said a D was okay. When I went to see the grades posting, I discovered that he had given me a C. Rebooting the Machine. This essay argues that we must reboot all societal machines and then rebuild from the ground up. We could start this rebooting with the discipline of physics. The Rebooting the Machine essay sets the table for the rest of The Theory of One book. It examines the idea that we must be prepared to reboot absolutely everything in order to achieve breakthroughs that will transform our future. The essay proposes a way of rebooting philosophy, psychiatry, physics and God. The initial rebooting of philosophy and psychiatry means going from behaviorism to existentialism. Behaviorism only asks that we behave while existentialism tells us we have total freedom and must take total responsibility for the world. I first rebooted physics by producing my theory of one on 1 January 2001 based on one argument. I have since added six more arguments. The Perimeter Institute of Theoretical Physics is a leading centre for scientific research, training and educational outreach in theoretical physics. The essay invites the director of the Perimeter Institute to write an essay responding to the theory of one. Against Physics. This essay recounts the two major physical theories of the Twentieth century (relativity theory and quantum theory) in context of Ockham’s principle of economy and Dirac’s principle of aesthetic value. The English monk William of Ockham developed Ockham’s razor which says that if all things are equal, the simplest theory tends to be the right one. Paul Dirac said that it is more important to have beautiful theories and equations than to have them fit the data. These economic and aesthetic principles are still the very foundation of all truly authentic scientific reasoning today. Einstein invoked the two principles in 1905 with his special relativity theory by combining the separate notions of space and time into absolute spacetime. Einstein invoked the two principles again in 1915 with his general relativity theory—based on the revelation that gravity and inertia are the same thing. By employing the Pythagorean Form, Einstein proved that an astronaut traveling at lightspeed would shrink to zero height. My theory of one thus argues that lightspeed is a boundary of the universe. It further argues that there is only one being of light or photon as there is no need for more than one. Furthermore, it argues that God and Light are the same thing and that lightspeed and Planck’s constant are the same boundary of the universe. Lightspeed and Planck’s constant are the two major universal constants. I would argue if a theory is simple, beautiful and reasonable, then it is mathematically true. Transcending Uncertainty. This essay recounts the events leading up to the paradigm shift of quantum theory in 1925—and then takes a look at what we still have to learn from it. Thomas Kuhn’s 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions defines the term paradigm shift as a transformation taking place beyond the grasp of our undeveloped a priori comprehension. He made the distinction between normal science which is local and paradigm-shifting science which is nonlocal. Moving within a city is local and moving to another city is nonlocal. Most physicists eat up normal science with a big spoon but flee in abject terror from paradigm shifts. 118 years ago scientists believed the universe was a deterministic, clock-like machine that followed strict causality. Classical physics started to unravel in 1897 when Sir JJ Thomson discovered the electron and the divisibility of the seemingly solid atom. Quantum theory put a decisive end to the strict causality viewpoint by proving that the atom is fundamentally indeterminate—thereby transcending uncertainty. Max Born first proposed the idea that matter waves could be interpreted probabilistically. Ernest Rutherford proposed a solar system atomic model in 1911 based on the revelation that both the solar system and the atom have nuclei containing about 99.9 percent of the mass and occupying about one-billionth of the spherical space. Quantum theory also tells us that causality fails at Planck’s constant—meaning that it is also a boundary of the spacetime continuum. The Great Cosmic Accounting Blunder. This essay compares the two physical fixedpoints in the universe—lightspeed and Planck’s constant—and argues that we have been guilty of double counting up until now and that in fact there is but one fixedpoint—which is the boundary of the universe. Consider for a moment two hypothetical spheres existing in abstract, metaphysical space—that is, space where the normal rules of physics do not apply. With the first sphere the center is everywhere and the boundary is nowhere, while with the second sphere the boundary is everywhere and the center is nowhere. The question is—How are the spheres different? The thought problem leads to the counterintuitive conclusion that the terms center and boundary are interchangeable in this case—and thus both spheres paradoxically describe the very same continuum. I then replaced the words boundary and centre with the words lightspeed and Planck’s constant—thereby uniting relativity theory (based on lightspeed) and quantum theory (based on Planck’s constant). While relativity theory speaks to the macrocosmos, quantum theory concerns itself with the nature of matter at the microcosmic level. My theory of one brings relativity theory and quantum theory together. The Aspect Experiment. This essay argues that the 1881 Michelson-Morley (M&M) experiment provides empirical validation of the 1905 special relativity theory—and, in a fascinating parallel, the 1982 Aspect experiment provides experimental validation of my 2001 theory of one. The M&M experiment established lightspeed is invariably fixed at 186,284 miles per second. According to Newton, a photon projected forward from a train traveling at thirty miles an hour would be traveling at lightspeed plus thirty miles per hour. The experiment presented a dilemma with the invariability of lightspeed. Einstein resolved the dilemma in 1905 with his relativity theory by revealing that spacetime contracts as a body accelerates thus satisfying the invariance of lightspeed condition. In 1982 a Frenchman named Aspect performed an astonishing experiment which proves all photons are instantaneously connected to one another. My theory of one explains this by recognizing the simple fact that there is only one photon in the universe. It is disappointing that physicists have not discovered this obvious truth. It shows they have failed the prudent man test. The Theory of One. This essay characterizes relativity theory, quantum theory and the theory that unites relativity theory and quantum theory—the theory of one. Einstein revealed with his special relativity theory that spacetime dilates as a function of velocity relative to lightspeed in accordance with the Pythagorean Form—ie. h^2 + (v/c)^2 = 1^2, h = height, v/c = velocity relative to lightspeed. If an astronaut were traveling at a velocity of 0.87c, he would shrink to half his original height. If he were traveling at lightspeed he would shrink to zero height—thereby indicating a universal boundary. In 1925 Schrödinger proposed an atomic model based on a wave equation—If one drops a pebble in the ocean, then the ripples become the valance rings of the orbiting electrons. The unexpected surprise is that the waves represent the probability of finding an electron at any given point—with the wave crests (or valence rings) representing the highest probabilities. Since causality fails at Planck’s constant, an absence of causality indicates an absence of spacetime—meaning there is no spacetime inside the atom. And like lightspeed, Planck’s constant is a boundary of the universe. The Theory of One Revisited. This essay delineates seven arguments regarding the theory of one—Inside Out, Outside In, The Pythagorean Form, Causality Breakdown, The Aspect Experiment, Simplicity and Beauty, and Unchallenged After Fourteen Years—and argues that I have made my case for the theory of one. According to Lincoln Barnett in his 1948 The Universe and Dr Einstein book, in which Einstein wrote the forward, “If a yardstick should attain the velocity of light, it would shrink to nothing at all.” My theory of one argues that if a yardstick shrinks to zero height at lightspeed, it simply means that lightspeed is a boundary of spacetime. Sir Roger Penrose had this to say about spacetime boundaries, “I am able to show that space and time come to a physical end.” Inside the universal boundary lies spacetime while outside the boundary lies nothingness. If physicists would have identified this boundary in 1948, we would be living in a completely different world today. Conclusion. The theory of one brings the reader face to face with the stunning realization that the universe is bounded—rather than unbounded, as Einstein and others have asserted. The theory of one delivers the ocean. It is the theory that spells the end of physics. It is the monolith of 2001—a spacetime odyssey.
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