Toward a Theory of Everything

I take a theory of everything to contain at least the following components:

1. Dynamical law

What variables to use to describe the physical universe? What laws govern them?

2. Boundary condition

What boundary condition to apply to in conjunction with the dynamical laws?

3. Empirical prescription

How to derive empirical predictions given the dynamical laws and bounary condition?

The first topic is studied in particle physics and quantum gravity, the second in quantum cosmology, and the third in quantum foundations. These delinate the scope of this site subject-wise.

Credence

What’s the correct approach to quantum gravity? No one knows for sure.

How to proceed facing difficult questions like this? Write down possibilities; assign credences based on current clues; discover new clues; update credences; repeat till the answer is clear.

Priority

What clues to look for? Those that change credences most, e.g., accelerated expansion of the universe against AdS/CFT.

What efforts to avoid? Those that do not change credences, e.g., publish on AdS/CFT because other people do, too.

Tools

I’m exploring the use of prediction markets to facilitate the process.

I also value negative evidences that help avoid wasting efforts down wrong routes.