67. A “Theory Of Everything”

The search for a physical “Theory of Everything”, a model in which gravity is described in terms that are mathematically (ideationally) consistent with the other fundamental forces — the electromagnetic, strong nuclear and weak nuclear forces — is an attempt to unify descriptions, not only of different scales, but also of a different order. This is because the other fundamental forces, as construed by Quantum Theory, describe relations between particles of matter, as effected through an exchange of particles, whereas gravity, on the other hand, as construed by General Relativity, describes a relation between matter and its frame of reference, space-time[1], which then has consequences for other particles of matter.[2] The attempt to describe gravity in Quantum physical terms, as effected through an exchange of particles — hypothetical gravitons — is an attempt to model gravity as a direct relation between particles.

Footnotes:

[1] Physicists routinely conceptualise the frame of reference, space-time, as if it were material — as, for example, when the term ‘fabric’ of space-time is used.

[2] The fact that both photons and the gravitational effects of matter travel at the speed of light suggests that this speed is a limit of the frame of reference, space-time.

ChatGPT revised:

The ‘Theory of Everything’ and the Orders of Description

The search for a physical “Theory of Everything” — a unified model in which gravity is described in terms that are mathematically (i.e., ideationally) consistent with the other fundamental forces — is an attempt to unify not only descriptions across different scales, but across different orders of construal.

The electromagnetic, strong nuclear, and weak nuclear forces, as modelled by Quantum Theory, describe interactions between particles of matter, mediated through the exchange of particles. These are force-carrier particles — such as photons for the electromagnetic force — that operate within space-time.

Gravity, by contrast, as modelled by General Relativity, describes a relation between matter and its frame of reference, namely space-time itself.[1] That is, matter alters the structure of the coordinate system in which it is embedded — and this alteration, in turn, affects the behaviour of other matter.[2]

The attempt to describe gravity in quantum terms — for example, by hypothesising the existence of gravitons — is thus an attempt to reconstrue gravity as a direct particle-to-particle interaction, rather than a relation between matter and its reference frame. This amounts to modelling gravity at a different order: translating a relational structure (between matter and space-time) into a causal structure (between particles).

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Notes

[1] This reference frame is routinely metaphorised as if it were material — for example, in the common phrase ‘fabric of space-time’. This metaphor implicitly relocates space-time from the order of measurement into the order of matter, potentially obscuring its function as a system of reference.

[2] The fact that both photons and gravitational effects propagate at the speed of light suggests that this speed is not merely a property of matter, but a limit imposed by the structure of space-time itself — the frame of reference within which all physical phenomena are located.