I used to believe that there were special people, highly credentialed scientists, mathematicians and engineers, who understood the complexities of the universe far better than I did. I believed that if I read enough of their books, and asked enough questions, I would understand it too, and it would make sense. As it turned out, I believed too much.
In his book, The Trouble with Physics, Lee Smolin states, “precious little progress has been made over the last 30 years.” This is very disappointing. What that means is that for as long as I have been alive, nothing truly new has been discovered or proposed. He even went so far as to say that meaningful progress may not be possible without contributions from people “outside the community”. I’m not exactly sure how far outside these people were expected to be, but I don’t think I’m one of them. From his website: “Lee Smolin is happy to correspond with readers who have questions or comments. Please note that he is unable to afford the time to examine or comment on theories sent by anyone without a formal degree in physics.”
The job of science is to describe and predict HOW things work. The job of religion is to explain WHY things work the way they do. And both try to have a role in explaining WHAT things actually are. Unlike religion, there are no designated authority figures in science. However, there are some who do seem to have a monopoly on good ideas. Just like religion, these people have followers.
There’s a limit to what can be learned from other people; and there’s REALLY a limit to what can be learned from dead people. Dead people can neither defend their work nor add to their ideas. Living people, who may or may not have any ideas of their own, do it for them. Dead people don’t come up with new ideas either. Living people do that too. It’s much easier, and far less risky, to build off of an accepted idea than it is to come up with something original. I only mention this because what I am going to show you is a new idea.