{"id":1395,"date":"2010-03-01T20:38:09","date_gmt":"2010-03-01T20:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.buffyholt.com\/blog\/?p=1395"},"modified":"2012-07-31T18:02:09","modified_gmt":"2012-07-31T18:02:09","slug":"the-theory-of-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.buffyholt.com\/blog\/2010\/03\/01\/the-theory-of-everything\/","title":{"rendered":"the theory of everything"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If I were born calm and, you know, smart, I would have wanted to be a physicist.   It would have made for nice balance.  But I wasn&#8217;t.  I came into the world hyper and full of stress.  So I write.   It&#8217;s where I find my peace.<\/p>\n<p>When I was a kid I loved Einstein, because he was funny and had cool hair; and the merry-go-round, because it made me feel like I was on Quantum Leap and I totally dug Scott Bakula.  Like a mini collider, it&#8217;d spin you so fast the world would warp and then you&#8217;d be spat out against the ground like some odd little particle&#8230;with everything else still moving because  <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Spacetime\"target=_blank>time and space<\/a> are relative to the position and velocity of different observers and you, having been slung ahead of yourself by a playground accelerator, are observing <em>both<\/em> from two places at once and neither your brain nor your body know quite how to cope.  It&#8217;s a fabulous rush, but being pushed off your axis also makes for nauseous.  That&#8217;s how I feel about physics.  Like a kid just flung from a merry-go-round.  Much as I&#8217;d love to, I can&#8217;t play with it too much or there&#8217;s a good probability my head will explode. <\/p>\n<p><center><object width=\"446\" height=\"326\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/video.ted.com\/assets\/player\/swf\/EmbedPlayer.swf\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\"><\/param><param name=\"bgColor\" value=\"#ffffff\"><\/param><param name=\"flashvars\" value=\"vu=http:\/\/video.ted.com\/talks\/dynamic\/BrianCox_2008-medium.flv&#038;su=http:\/\/images.ted.com\/images\/ted\/tedindex\/embed-posters\/BrianCox-2008.embed_thumbnail.jpg&#038;vw=432&#038;vh=240&#038;ap=0&#038;ti=253&#038;introDuration=16500&#038;adDuration=4000&#038;postAdDuration=2000&#038;adKeys=talk=brian_cox_on_cern_s_supercollider;year=2008;theme=to_boldly_go;theme=what_s_next_in_tech;theme=technology_history_and_destiny;event=TED2008;&#038;preAdTag=tconf.ted\/embed;tile=1;sz=512x288;\" \/><embed src=\"http:\/\/video.ted.com\/assets\/player\/swf\/EmbedPlayer.swf\" pluginspace=\"http:\/\/www.macromedia.com\/go\/getflashplayer\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" wmode=\"transparent\" bgColor=\"#ffffff\" width=\"446\" height=\"326\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" flashvars=\"vu=http:\/\/video.ted.com\/talks\/dynamic\/BrianCox_2008-medium.flv&#038;su=http:\/\/images.ted.com\/images\/ted\/tedindex\/embed-posters\/BrianCox-2008.embed_thumbnail.jpg&#038;vw=432&#038;vh=240&#038;ap=0&#038;ti=253&#038;introDuration=16500&#038;adDuration=4000&#038;postAdDuration=2000&#038;adKeys=talk=brian_cox_on_cern_s_supercollider;year=2008;theme=to_boldly_go;theme=what_s_next_in_tech;theme=technology_history_and_destiny;event=TED2008;\"><\/embed><\/object><\/center><br \/>\n<center>Brain Snack: Brian Cox<\/center><\/p>\n<p>I sometimes get consumed with thinking of the collapsing and curvature of time and space &#8211; it&#8217;s my Walter Mitty life.  Things like string theory and super symmetry excite me beyond belief, but they take a lot out of me as well.  I&#8217;m not speaking metaphorically.  I get breathless and all short-circuity just thinking about it.  Not least because dark matter and fourth dimensions always seem to give rise to certain philosophical questions and as much as I&#8217;m a monotheist I&#8217;m a pantheist as well, two things which aren&#8217;t at all mutually exclusive, but which make for complicated brain work all the same.  Not zen, my friend.  Especially when you&#8217;re trying to live below the neck. <\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not an elegant mathematician.  I can get there, eventually, but not before I&#8217;m foaming at the mouth.   And since it&#8217;s probably helpful to stay sane when you&#8217;re dealing with the theory of everything, I don&#8217;t think I could ever be a physicist.   Not made the way I am.   A ninja, maybe.  But never a physicist.  <\/p>\n<p><center><object width=\"446\" height=\"326\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/video.ted.com\/assets\/player\/swf\/EmbedPlayer.swf\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\"><\/param><param name=\"bgColor\" value=\"#ffffff\"><\/param><param name=\"flashvars\" value=\"vu=http:\/\/video.ted.com\/talks\/dynamic\/GarrettLisi_2008-medium.flv&#038;su=http:\/\/images.ted.com\/images\/ted\/tedindex\/embed-posters\/GarrettLisi-2008.embed_thumbnail.jpg&#038;vw=432&#038;vh=240&#038;ap=0&#038;ti=371&#038;introDuration=16500&#038;adDuration=4000&#038;postAdDuration=2000&#038;adKeys=talk=garrett_lisi_on_his_theory_of_everything;year=2008;theme=to_boldly_go;theme=unconventional_explanations;event=TED2008;&#038;preAdTag=tconf.ted\/embed;tile=1;sz=512x288;\" \/><embed src=\"http:\/\/video.ted.com\/assets\/player\/swf\/EmbedPlayer.swf\" pluginspace=\"http:\/\/www.macromedia.com\/go\/getflashplayer\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" wmode=\"transparent\" bgColor=\"#ffffff\" width=\"446\" height=\"326\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" flashvars=\"vu=http:\/\/video.ted.com\/talks\/dynamic\/GarrettLisi_2008-medium.flv&#038;su=http:\/\/images.ted.com\/images\/ted\/tedindex\/embed-posters\/GarrettLisi-2008.embed_thumbnail.jpg&#038;vw=432&#038;vh=240&#038;ap=0&#038;ti=371&#038;introDuration=16500&#038;adDuration=4000&#038;postAdDuration=2000&#038;adKeys=talk=garrett_lisi_on_his_theory_of_everything;year=2008;theme=to_boldly_go;theme=unconventional_explanations;event=TED2008;\"><\/embed><\/object><\/center><br \/>\n<center>Brain Snack: Garrett Lisi<\/center><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If I were born calm and, you know, smart, I would have wanted to be a physicist. It would have made for nice balance. But I wasn&#8217;t. I came into the world hyper and full of stress. So I write. It&#8217;s where I find my peace. When I was a kid I loved Einstein, because<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,31],"tags":[36,34],"class_list":["post-1395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hum-drum","category-brain-snacks","tag-einstein","tag-the-universe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buffyholt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buffyholt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buffyholt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buffyholt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buffyholt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1395"}],"version-history":[{"count":59,"href":"https:\/\/www.buffyholt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1430,"href":"https:\/\/www.buffyholt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1395\/revisions\/1430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buffyholt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buffyholt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buffyholt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}