Everything? Well, wait a minute. Questioning A Theory of Everything may be beating a dead horse since I’m certainly not the first to be bothered by its implicit hyperbole but let’s face it, referring to one’s field of study as The Theory of Everything smacks of arrogance and naivité. Although it’s only been around for a relatively short period and may already be dying a natural death, the phrase, though certainly not the endeavour, should be retired from serious scientific literature and discourse.

Let me elaborate. The search for grand syntheses, for commonalities, regularities, ideas and concepts that transcend the narrow confines of specific problems or disciplines is one of the great inspirational drivers of science and scientists. Arguably, it is also a defining characteristic of homo sapiens sapiens. Perhaps the binomial form of sapiens is some distorted poetic recognition of this. Like the invention of gods and God, the concept of A Theory of Everything connotes the grandest vision of all, the inspiration of all inspirations, namely that we can encapsulate and understand the entirety of the universe in a small set of precepts, in this case, a concise set of mathematical equations. Like the concept of God, however, it is potentially misleading and intellectually dangerous.

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