Trying.

The causal theory of views is still an achievement, for it is a working, coherent “realist” explanation of the universe, agreeing with both quantum mechanics and relativity. If nothing else, it shows that quantum mechanics is not the only scientifically convincing way of understanding the foundations of nature. After spending a good deal of time working through the theory’s many intricacies and trying to convince you of its strengths, Smolin concludes by saying that it is “still only part of the story, and there is still much to learn about it, but it is a way the world might be”, which is hardly a brazen trumpet blast of confidence. But then, the quantum world has humbled many scientists, some of them very great. To claim to have seen through its mysteries would be arrogant and foolish, and Smolin is neither. He is confident that ultimately “nature is comprehensible”, but that for now we can only hope to make small progress, trying to find “less arbitrariness and more reason” in the counterintuitive building blocks of the universe. Perhaps it is worth bearing in mind what Einstein is quoted as saying:

The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle.

Let it not be said, then, that our world does not give us fuel for the light that is our wonder. We are blessed to live in such a strange place.

CONNECT