Time Off

Chapter Eighteen

"How exactly is it that a man in his eighties, who quite frankly, I had never heard of, in a very short time, emerged from obscurity with a new theory of everything, that is so compelling. It's remarkable. It's unbelievable." The BBC science commentator went on to share a brief life story of Abel Jennings.

Then there was footage of Roy Sussman doing an interview. "Once you accept the notion that energy is not matter and matter is not energy. At least at the level we have always assumed, then the concept changes. And new ideas and theories are possible."

"They're now calling this the theory of everything. Do you really believe that? That this is the theory of everything?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I, I don't think a theory of everything can be knowable. Once you believe you have arrived at such a theory, you realize that in fact it is not everything.  Every question you answer, just poses a new question. But I do believe that in some limited way, according to some classical definition of everything, that we have now explained what we can observe, ranging from the subatomic scale to the cosmological scale. In other words, the old conundrum between quantum mechanics and general relativity is no longer the obstacle. More important, we have ideas not only about how things behave, but also why. The concept of why has always been the illusive part. But as I said, it just raises new questions."

"Such as?"

"Well, for one, we don't know if this next level down is really the end of the line. And because wave theories are now regarded as more or less just statistical approximations of smaller particles, then what about space? I mean truly empty space. Where does the universe, at the smallest dimensions, truly become a quantum affair?"

"Fascinating. Dr. Sussman, let me switch to a different angle. How do you explain this accomplishment, the fact that you and Dr. Jennings and others, came to this point at uh... well to put it delicately, you two gentlemen are not young men."

"Haha, well put. A lot of people say that but it's really not so remarkable. What people tend to ignore is the fact that this development was really the brainchild of Ms. Villasenor. I really find it astounding that people are skeptical simply because she never attended college or had any formal training. We more or less just had to make sense of what she already proved using real experimental data. That alone is what I would call the real accomplishment. What I have learned from this, is that science is not exactly what we thought. It's not all about rigor and method and structure. What happened here was pure imagination and the courage and conviction to find the truth."

"Yes, I would like to ask you about Ms. Villasenor. Has her imagination led to many new developments and will the two of you work together on any new concepts?"

"I think the concepts that she has already given us are really a gift and quite enough. But to answer your question, we are working on some new ideas. It's a little early to get into that, but this new line of thinking is not a dead end. There are many paths to follow and there will be lots of teams following all of those paths, both in terms of theory and even some possible technological breakthroughs."

"Can you share anything? I think there is a real desire to know more. About what else might be imagined, or discovered."

"I guess I could say that there are possibilities, with our new understanding, to manipulate gravity. Another exciting area of study, and you might not see immediately why it has anything to do with our theories, but it is the study of consciousness and intelligence."

"You're right, I wouldn't see the connection but that's very interesting. Why would our better understanding of the subatomic world and gravity lead to ideas regarding consciousness?"