Theory of Everything (ToE)
"The force is what gives the Jedi his power. It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together."
— Ben (Obi-wan) Kenobi
See my article on "Fate or The Force" for stuff going on in my mind about our minds
— speculative 'science' of our psychology, emotions & free-will, combined with a philosophy of God/'The Force' (of love), and how this relates to fate and quantum physics of the universe.
Basically it's my integrated theory of life, the universe & everything!
or just Theory of Everything (ToE) for short.
Most usefully (I hope), my ToE considers the importance of belief in affecting how we live life — are we destined to a predetermined fate or is there a "force" we don't yet understand that gives us free-will and enables us to influence the future of the universe? Could that "force" be affected by our emotions, which are a form of magnetic wave that we can transmit instantaneously across time and space (because magnetism is just a mathematical description of the effect of a moving electric charge, rather than a separate physical phenomena in itself) - thus transcending our conventional understanding of cause & effect and enabling us to change the future (& the present & maybe even the past - consistent with this more recent theory of "retrocausality")? Because how else do you explain why Aspies have high affective empathy even though they interpret words literally and they're bad at interpreting body language? And perhaps such physics exploits quantum entanglement of photons in the brain to achieve this instantaneous processing?
If so, probably the most powerful emotional force is that of Love, because unlike Faith in others, or Hope for ourselves, selfless love is something we can choose (through free will) to feel towards others (love without choice would be meaningless), even when we have no faith in them or hope for any love in return. Of these three then, love is indeed the most powerful of them all! The "Force" that gives us the power of free-will may thus be the same force that gives us the power of true love, and when we show love for others, that is when we have greatest power over the force that binds and influences the universe. (I've been practising transmitting love like Gerry in "P.S. I Love You" 😉.)
So I create a new definition of "God" as being "the Force" that gives man (& woman) free will. Conversely, without such a God we have no free-will and all our 'choices' and our fate is predetermined (in which case one could alternatively say God is another word for fate).
Strangely, given the importance of belief, I conclude that we should be agnostic about whether there is a 'God' or 'Force' that enables us to give effect to 'free will' and influence events in the Universe. The alternatives – of certain knowledge that we can affect things through our will, or certain knowledge that we are essentially robots acting out our fate – seem incompatible with the survival of humanity as we know it. The former could imbue any individual holding that certain knowledge with unparalleled power to control the universe, which is infeasible for more than one entity with free-will to have (beyond the one true 'will of God' or the Force itself), whilst the latter would render us so apathetic and devoid of meaning it's doubtful we would survive as a species!
My ToE also includes discussion of how the brain works as a pattern-recognition machine, which I’ve now realised explains why we are most attracted to people with symmetric or “average” faces – it’s because our brains record a generic face as an average of all faces seen, so when we see a face that is closest to this average, the brain produces its strongest “matching” signal. Conversely, an unusual or “abnormal” face that deviates strongly from the average will produce the strongest and most discomforting difference or “error” signal. Hence our brain experiences average as comforting or beautiful, and abnormal as discomforting or ugly.
Curiously, given this pattern-recognition type of brain is optimal for evolution (making us attracted to an average face, which indicates a more diverse & healthy genetic base), this suggests its benefits for mate selection may be a key reason why we have brains like this, as opposed to some other computing architecture.
For the record, these thoughts started on 31 October 2014 (you can see my initial thinking on Facebook on April Fools Day 2015) and were developed during a rather traumatic period of life.
I finally completed my first full draft of the attached ToE on 20/4/16 (followed by minor updates in 2016 & 2020), having been distracted for a brief period when my ponderings on candidates for "the Force" diverted me to study gravity & relativity (my new theory of gravity then held me back) and also the quantum nature of the universe (probably), along with the pursuit of justice & other plans, plus a lot of daydreaming & sleeping...
Amongst other things, my theory postulates the physics of emotions and challenges Einstein on this:
I'm not so sure Einstein's right about that... I think there may be some commonality between the science of emotions and gravity (on which I also challenge Einstein)
— perhaps both are forms of electromagnetic waves?
However, whilst Einstein may not have got everything right, the following (claimed) quotes of his seem relevant to my theory (as does this letter claimed to be from Einstein to his daughter, which may not actually be from him but it's still worth sharing & thinking about; I'm sure he wouldn't mind his name helping to spread the message):
(see here for more about this)
This one is misattributed to Einstein, but I think it's sort of correct anyway:
So if imagination is the key, we could do worse than go with this:
My "ToE" draws some inspiration from John Lennon's "Imagine", although I'm not sure I believe in everything else he sang — maybe God/love is a concept by which we conquer pain?
As in that song, I do believe in me, but I also believe in Elvis, and Rock 'n' Roll, and I, I-I, believe in this... Huh!