Towards a Theory of Everything – by Steve Wallis (www.socialiststeve.me.uk), 14 May 2009

Devising a “Theory of Everything” is the holy grail of physics. Physicists contend that there are four fundamental forces in the universe (strong nuclear, weak nuclear, electromagnetic and gravitational) but a theory that encompasses all four forces has so far eluded them. In fact, they have failed in the slightly less ambitious task of unifying quantum mechanics (describing the very small) with general relativity (describing the very big), to devise a “Grand Unification Theory” (encompassing all the fundamental forces apart from gravity). They have resorted to bizarre theories that bear little relationship to the real universe, like “11-dimensional M-theory” (matrix string theory), and still not arrived at a complete solution.

I suggest that the reason physicists have not yet unified theories about the very big and the very small is that are things in between – conscious living beings – which make free will decisions. I claim that there is something to life outside matter, although perhaps life can be considered a form of energy or a fifth fundamental force, which we can call “chi” (life force). I have some religious views, believing that there is some sort of spiritual plane or heaven and perhaps a god, but my theory may be compatible with atheism if there is another dimension or link to a parallel universe. I do not claim to have come up with a set of equations describing free will; instead, I would argue that no set of equations for it can possibly be derived. My expertise is in artificial intelligence and politics (being an ex-Marxist) rather than physics, although I did get an A at A-level physics 25 years ago; I can therefore claim to understand more than physicists how people think!

The Marxist term “materialism”, as used in “dialectical materialism” describing the natural world and society and “historical materialism” when applied to history, means that everything is a result of material conditions – our inputs (the results of our senses) affect our outputs (what we say or do) over time (taking into account memories in our minds and other cells of our bodies).

Philosophers use the term “determinism” for the same thing. This leaves no scope for free will and would rationally mean that everything is predetermined by the Big Bang (assuming this was how the universe started of course)! Many Marxists (including Friedrich Engels who originated dialectics) have used the term “alien class”, which could mean a class from outside without specifying which one but implies that there is a class of aliens, and Rosa Lichtenstein (who has perhaps studied dialectical materialism the most) uses “alien-class” with a dash in essays on her anti-dialectics website – although she claims to agree with materialism, I suspect she believes in a class of aliens for which materialism does not apply!

Actually, quantum mechanics, which was conceived after the time of Marx and Engels, introduces randomness with their being a probability of a particle decaying in a certain period of time. The paradox in quantum mechanics of Schrödinger’s Cat, for which there is a 50% chance of it being killed by a decaying particle within a period of time and which is supposedly alive and dead at the same time until the box it is in is opened, is avoided because the cat is a living being with free will.

I agree with James Lovelock’s theory of the combined minds of everybody in the world (and animals) being a sort of self-regulating super-organism which he calls Gaia, rather more literally than Lovelock himself, with our free will decisions made in conjunction with each other, based on models of other individuals and organisations in our own minds, to ensure that everything works out in one way or other. The bizarre idea in quantum mechanics of measuring a wave affecting it (with a “wave function collapsing” to yield particles) makes more sense when all observers of the wave are part of the same super-organism.

Lovelock appeared to reject his own theory (about the world being self-regulating to ensure everything works out) in his book “Revenge of Gaia”, due to the possibility that global warming would eliminate human life, but our free will decisions can and will avoid such a calamity – and other potential calamities like nuclear annihilation. Or perhaps, if global warming does make the world uninhabitable, human beings could move elsewhere in the galaxy (which we may of course be able to do irrespective of what happens to the earth’s temperature) – I consider that the universe, not just the earth, is a super-organism.

There is a danger of being fatalistic with such an analysis, but some outcomes for the human race would be far from desirable, such as capitalism enshrined forever with attacks on our civil liberties such as ID cards linked to a central database to prevent a socialist revolution – this is indeed the main agenda of New Labour in Britain. [The Patriot Act in the USA has a similar purpose.] Alternatively, racial and religious hatred could escalate into a dreadful spiral of terrorism, leading to “barbarism” as Rosa Luxembourg put it. If fascists like the British National Party came to power, this would be the likely consequence. I am very confident this won’t happen and that some sort of good, varied and interesting world will come out of the struggles taking place in the world today, but everybody’s free will can play a role in this coming about and exactly what sort of world we will have.

I have quite a developed understanding of how human minds work, based on the struggle between good and bad forces, corresponding to people who are predominantly caring or selfish, which I will soon outline in my New Good Intentions Manifesto. I am currently unsure whether there are separate super-organisms for people with good intentions from those with bad ones, and whether serious computer modelling of people’s minds by AI software is possible to effectively turn people into robots. I think that all conspiratorial organizations involve some bad people as well as good people and resort to unethical methods to try to become dominant. For a truly good world, free will has to become dominant!

As you will have noticed, this is not a complete Theory of Everything but a contribution to debates on the subject. I would welcome comments. Email revolutionarysocialiststeve@yahoo.co.uk or phone me on 07725 735255.

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