[Spring Theory (OP)]

Since new theories are the rage in this directory, I think the following minimum requirements would be necessary to come up with a theory of everything that unifies all the forces or at least some of the forces in nature:

1. Follow the principle of least action. This means the Lagrangian is stationary. The Standard model has the Lagrangian as probabilistic.
2. Be Lorentz transformable (relativistically invariant) which starts with a four vector tensor. Look at proper time.
3. Be gauge invariant. I think the best description of gauge invariant is the theory is stretchable in space and still holds.
4. Holds true on any coordinate transformation.

Any theory of everything that passes these tests is a good start.

Any other requirements you would add?

[Eternal Student]

Hi.

    Why does everyone want a T.O.E. ?  Obviously it would be noteworthy for a month or two but after 10 years have passed would it matter or have made any significant contribution?   It's likely to be complicated and unwieldy so that the earlier theories will continue to be used anyway.

     For comparison,  we could teach school children about relativity and quantum mechanics straight away but we don't.   Newtonian mechanics remains more useful, more easily understood and more easily applied, in almost every situation.   Newtonian Mechanics will probably be useful for ever-more.

Best Wishes.

[Spring Theory (OP)]

Hi.

    Why does everyone want a T.O.E. ?  Obviously it would be noteworthy for a month or two but after 10 years have passed would it matter or have made any significant contribution?   It's likely to be complicated and unwieldy so that the earlier theories will continue to be used anyway.

     For comparison,  we could teach school children about relativity and quantum mechanics straight away but we don't.   Newtonian mechanics remains more useful, more easily understood and more easily applied, in almost every situation.   Newtonian Mechanics will probably be useful for ever-more.

Best Wishes.

The purpose would be to reduce the dumbing down of society.

All paths must be pursued. You can never be confident a path leads to a dead end unless you walk it.

[Eternal Student]

Hi.

     I'm incined to take a practical approach and to put the wider society first instead of the individual.

     If a billion people write stuff on a typewriter then one of them might produce a T.o.E.   However, it will require about a thousand knowledgable physicists to read through this stuff and (hopefully) the new T.o.E. will be identified.   It will still take them (the physicists) a long time to read and study it all.   There's also the possibility that they just might get bored and accidentally miss it anyway.

     It would have been better for society as a whole if those thousand knowledgable physicists had just spent the time doing research on their own areas of expertise.  This would have produced something useful for society far more often and probably resolved problems that were much more current or immediate issues that sociey is facing now.

The purpose would be to reduce the dumbing down of society.

    Society will suffer if people have to read billions of pieces of junk. They will be confused and frequently mislead with information that is only partially correct.   Even if a pot of gold is eventually found it won't off-set the harm that was done.
 

All paths must be pursued. You can never be confident a path leads to a dead end unless you walk it.

   OK.  Everyone is in charge of their own life and they can do what they want.   However, you don't have to publish everything and try to force others to read it.   You can do some mathematics for your own enjoyment, of course you can, and just like artists do the work for their own enjoyment you can hang it up in your own house.
    If something is going onto a forum then perhaps it should be intended for discussion and perhaps the interaction and input of others could actually be useful.   On the other hand if you just want something to be read by somone else and you think it's scientific, stick on some other website,  maybe upload it somewhere like Vixra.

     The existing systems we have for publishing work in a recognised journal (or similar place) are a bit restrictive for the ordinary person.   Without something like the endorsement of a recognised research establishment it's very hard to submit an article for publication.   Inevetibly sometmes a pot of gold will be lost or never published.   However, the system filters out a lot of junk and probably does benefit society as a whole (as previously discussed, the time of knowledgable physicists is a valuable resource for society).    Besides which, if someone is determined and really convinced they have a pot of gold then they will find a way to get it published.  They can dedicate the time to get a degree, register for a research degree and get the backing of a recognised research institute etc.

Best Wishes.
 

[Spring Theory (OP)]

Good ideas are contagious.  If a trillion TOE's are generated, the good ones are passed on and the idea is replicated like a bio weapon.

[Bored chemist]

  If a trillion TOE's are generated, the good ones are

... impossible to find among the dross.

[evan_au]

Why does everyone want a T.O.E. ?

I think most physicists would be delighted with a T.O.S.M. (Theory Of Slightly More).
- There are lots of unexplained constants in physics (eg why are the magnitude of charges on the electron and proton the same? It's too close to be a coincidence, but there's no obvious reason why it has to be so.)
- Many Physicists suspect that there is some subatomic Dark Matter Particle, but they are becoming increasingly frustrated by their inability to find it

The Swedish Academy of Sciences award a Nobel Prize for Physics every year. A proven T.O.S.M. would be a sure-fire winner!