About GRAVITY

Things do not just fall toward each other, they also cease falling. In principle a theory of gravity should describe both of these phenomena. Which is to say, the word gravity should connote not only falling but also standing (or, you might say, rising), not only unity but also multiplicity, not only black holes but also atoms. In other words, a theory of gravity should be an essentially quantum theory, a truly general theory — a theory of everything. Einstein's general theory of relativity is not general in this truly general sense. Better than anyone, Einstein understood this fact — which is why he spent the last several decades of his life trying to generalize his “general” theory.

Einstein also understood that a theory of gravity should be more than general: it should be derived from principle, namely a principle of relativity, i.e. a principle of sameness or of difference (these notions implying each other). Einstein's famous theory wittingly approximates such a principled, relativity theory. Inasmuch, his theory contrasts especially with the quantum mechanics (a.k.a. matrix mechanics) of Heisenberg and Bohr and company. Yet the principle at bottom of Einstein’s theory is not so much a principle of relativity as it is a principle of “invariance”; it understates difference; i.e. it understates multiplicity, quantumness.

We at Gravity.org think that the destiny of physics and indeed the destiny of the world depend on an optimal expression (including an optimal determination, a single best mathematical symbol) of the principle of relativity. This dependence is the chief lesson to be gleaned from the physics of the last century. But until recently the thinker who has come closest to making said expression is Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. By way of Leibniz’s philosophy, Einstein’s principle of relativity can be simplified and generalized such that it emerges identical to the single most basic and inasmuch natural belief of all: an individual’s belief in others; i.e. an individual’s belief that he/she is not alone. Which is to say, the principle of relativity should be understood as being precisely the weakest form of solipsism. A physics based soley on this principle of relativity would be an extremely beautiful — that is, simple yet general, and in this sense extremely moderate, profoundly and indefatigably ironic — physics. And this is why we at Gravity.org think that such physics — truly general, final, heuristic and perfectly successful yet extremely significant of mystery (the mystery of plentiful existence itself) — is destined to emerge.

Falling, rising, generality, relation, sameness, difference. These are extremely profound notions; people for countless millennia have naturally meditated upon them. In fact, the touchstone which is modern physics points us not only to the future but also to the past — the deep past. And it is especially in terms of this past that we will discover — or, better still, reconstruct — what we may fairly call the original theory of gravity, the extreme richness of which prehistoric theory interfaces naturally with the nascent physical theory adumbrated above. In the process of this recovery, we will learn that we owe as much or more to James Joyce as to Einstein and Leibniz.

Truly we are addressing herein a theory of everything: mythology, history, religion, psychology, art, sociology, commerce, physics, philosophy, cosmology. What’s more, said theory is extremely beautiful in the sense of harmony between simplicity and generality, unity and multiplicity, exclusivity and inclusivity, introversion and extroversion. Such a theory is also essentially fractal and holographic.

The Gravity trilogy is an address of and to a Golden Age. Until some 5000 years ago the world, we will try to show herein, was successfully understood and organized according to what may fairly be called a theory of everything, a theory of quantum gravity, of difference — a truly general theory of relativity. That Golden Age echoes in terms of Kronos, Saturn, Solomon, Humpty, etc. Humpty was destined to fall. And fall Humpty did. But likewise he is destined rise, and in fact he is rising before our very eyes. Yes, unlike all the king’s men, we the people of this century will see our way to putting Humpty together again. The Gravity trilogy endeavors to shed light with utmost accuracy and precision on this way forward, on this destiny, on this considerably long lost yet at least ever-present and indeed obviously developing Golden Age.