Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity

COMPLEX SYSTEMS EXHIBIT UNEXPECTED BEHAVIOR One is merely a pessimistic feeling; the other conveys the exhilaration that accompanies recognition of a Law of Nature. Because of its fundamental importance for all that follows, we have termed this Law the Generalized Uncertainty Principle.

we will explain Feynman’s approach in detail, and employ it to explore the idea that the universe itself has no single history, nor even an independent existence. That seems like a radical idea, even to many physicists. Indeed, like many notions in today’s science, it appears to violate common sense. But common sense is based upon everyday experien

But they can’t even begin to explain how this quantum world works. As physicist James Trefil observed, “We’ve encountered an area of the universe our brains just aren’t wired to understand.”

According to the traditional conception of the universe, objects move on well-defined paths and have definite histories. We can specify their precise position at each moment in time. Although that account is successful enough for everyday purposes, it was found in the 1920s that this “classical” picture could not account for the seemingly bizarre b