Again, we should be exact here. General relativity is not known to be inconsistent with quantum mechanics. Standard quantum gravity (i.e., the Feynman-Weinberg Lagrangian) is known to be consistent with every experiment conducted to date and is (so far) internally consistent. But many physicists don't like it because it cannot be (completely) written down on paper, i.e., the series of individually-finite terms diverge to infinity. They're looking for something they can completely write down in a book, but they're looking in vain.Quote:
Originally Posted by trish
Lumping general relativity in with other classical physics does a disservice to general relativity and its place in modern physics. General relativity is known to be consistent with every experiment conducted to date, and no other gravity theory has arisen to replace it.
We should accept what standard quantum field theory is forcing upon us (regarding gravity) unless it's experimentally refuted or shown to be internally inconsistent. It's the natural view to hold, the one that proposes no changes to the known laws of physics. Therefore it ought to be the prevailing theory of quantum gravity unless one (or both) of the said provisos can be demonstrated.
For more on this matter, see Prof. Frank J. Tipler's below paper:
F. J. Tipler, "The structure of the world from pure numbers," Reports on Progress in Physics, Vol. 68, No. 4 (April 2005), pp. 897-964. http://math.tulane.edu/~tipler/theoryofeverything.pdf Also released as "Feynman-Weinberg Quantum Gravity and the Extended Standard Model as a Theory of Everything," arXiv:0704.3276, April 24, 2007. http://arxiv.org/abs/0704.3276
And see also the below Wikipedia article:
"Omega Point (Tipler)," Wikipedia, January 6, 2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?...ldid=182549075
From the above Wikipedia article, in particluar see the below section:
The Omega Point and the quantum gravity Theory of Everything http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Omega_Point_%28Tipler%29&oldid=182 549075#
The_Omega_Point_and_the_quantum_gravity_Theory_of_ Everything
Regarding the last paragraph in your above comment, recall that in physics it's just as accurate to say that causation goes from future to past events: viz, the principle of least action; and especially unitarity. Thus, the final singularity can be an actual person (per the Turing test) because it can speak to us now (since our present brain-states are ultimately defined by the cosmological end state).