Theory of Everything

The theory of everything (TOE/ToE) is a hypothetical framework explaining all known physical phenomena in the universe. Researchers have searched for such a model ever since the development of quantum mechanics and Albert Einstein's theory of relativity in the early 20th century.

In other words a final; ultimate; unified field or master theory, a singular, all-encompassing, coherent theoretical framework of physics that fully explains and links together all physical aspects of the universe.

Initially, the term 'theory of everything' was used with an ironic reference to various overgeneralized theories. Physicist Harald Fritzsch used the term in his 1977 lectures in Varenna. Physicist John Ellis claimed to have introduced the acronym "TOE" into the technical literature in an article in "Nature" the world's leading multidisciplinary science journal, in 1986. Over time, the term stuck in popularizations of theoretical physics research.

Conventional sequence of theories has it that a theory of everything would unify all the fundamental interactions of nature: gravitation; the strong interaction; the weak interaction, and electromagnetism.

The theory of everything is a proposed notion in the scientific community, which, states that there is one all-encompassing theory that proposes a framework of understanding of all of physics, combining the quantum mechanics and classical physics into a unified approach, which, explains the laws of the universe.

Since general relativity describes the large scale, or cosmological, structure of the universe, and quantum theory describes the microscopic, or subatomic, structures, the unification of these theories would explain both the very big and the very small. This theory is often referred to as a "theory of everything".

If that is not complicated enough, 'String theory/M-theory' proposes an additional 6 or 7 dimensions of hyperspace + the 4 common dimensions = 10D or 11D space-time.

To resolve the incompatibility, a theoretical framework revealing a deeper underlying reality, unifying gravity with the other three interactions, must be discovered to harmoniously integrate the realms of general relativity and quantum mechanics into a seamless whole.

General relativity and quantum mechanics have been thoroughly proven in their separate fields of relevance. There is a philosophical debate within the physics community as to whether a theory of everything deserves to be called the fundamental law of the universe. Thus, finding a theory of everything is one of the major unsolved problems in physics.

To this end Stephen Hawkings last words were:

“There is no God. No one directs the universe,” in his 2018 popular science book “Brief Answers to the Big Questions.”

Food for thought!