Can there be a theory of ‘everything’?
Science has been highly successful. It is tempting to suggest that to find the universal truth we should just carry on as we are. Yet there are questions which arguably can never be resolved by the scientific method. These include:
Where did the universe come from?  How will it end? What was the pre Big Bang ‘primal atom’? What sustains the laws of nature? How can science explain ‘random’ events? ‘Infinity’ cannot be imagined nor empirically verified; is it not meaningless?  How can the realm of thought ever be scientifically objectified?
These, and surely other, fundamental problems strongly suggest that there may be limits to the efficacy of the scientific method. Unless there is a resort to a faith-based system, or a helpless agnosticism, there is only one alternative approach to the formation of a universal theory and its name is metaphysics.
Here, ‘metaphysics’ is taken to mean ‘beyond physics’. This does not imply superiority, it simply means that the metaphysicist (sic) can put together ideas and facts from various sources to give us the best possible theory available for our time. The merits of rival theories can be gauged by their simplicity, accordance with fact, coherence, logicality, breadth of explanation and plausibility of predictions.
The theory offered here begins with a definition. ‘The universe is everything that has existed, does exist and will exist.’ It follows that other than the universe there is nothing. ‘Nothing’ does not mean emptiness nor darkness; the word is an instruction to cease imagining.
A senior scientist recently suggested that the universe came about by ‘an accident happening in nothing’ but it is evident, pace Aristotle, that nothing can come from nothing. Therefore there cannot be an account of the beginning of the universe.
Neither can there be an account of the end, for science tells us that energy cannot be destroyed; it merely changes, becoming less and less available in a ‘cooling down’ process called ‘entropy’.
The universe thus has neither beginning nor end. The simplest form without beginning or end is a circle. It seems reasonable, therefore, to seek a circular account of the universe’s operation.
This is challenging! Because the linear approach has thus far ensured our survival we are very strongly conditioned to think in that fashion. Evidently we need to continue to do so but for the big picture, change is necessary. However, it takes practise!
The first step in the description of the suggested circle is to declare that the universe is, at its simplest, a system of energy operating in space. These two axiomatic entities, space and energy, are not made of anything (ie they have no constituents), they are abstractions and just are.
Energy comes in two modes, light and dark and in two manifestations; continuous (wave form) and discontinuous (particle). A third fundamental abstraction, time, emerges from the operation of discontinuous energy.
It is proposed that all aggregations of energy have two complementary aspects, the mental and the physical. These are not causally related but are as opposite sides of the same coin. Simple entities (eg garden spades) have extremely small subjective powers. More complex and dynamic entities (eg humans) are very considerably conscious.
It is suggested that in the primal atom, which is here called Alpha, complexity and dynamism were at a maximum. It was an almost totally mental entity set up by its inhabitants to be a paradise state. For reasons given below, the people of Alpha designed also the explosion and the parameters of its aftermath, a phase, called ‘Nature’, in which we currently exist.
A primary purpose of Nature is to increase consciousness and hence generate willpower which will reverse entropy and bring about universal contraction.
Secondly, the Nature process will create an ‘end’ state called Omega. Omega is identical to Alpha and hence we can use one word for both: ‘Alphoma’.
Hence the circle is: Alphoma-explosion-Nature-revival-Alphoma.
There is, of course, a huge amount more to be said but for the purposes of this brief introduction perhaps the following will suffice:
The universe is expanding into nothingness and will, as consciousness increases, eventually contract.
Everything is irrevocably within – there is no ‘outside’.
Containment is not due to curved space but is a property of energy.
The (re)-construction at Omega involves the revival of everyone – we exist in Alphoma as well as Nature.
Our Alphoman selves live in subjective time so, despite the explosion, we perceive no break.
When we die, our perception of time ceases. Our engineered revival thus seems to be instant.
Our Alphoman selves created the laws of nature, probably using dark energy.
We also programmed ‘nudges’ which, appearing to us as ‘random’, allow essential free will but provide an overall ‘steer’ towards the eventual reintegration.
‘Something to Believe’, Richard Miles Brown, available via Amazon and, for £10 delivered, from rwpublish73@gmail.com