Comments on: Ask the Uber Cool Nerd God http://rocketscientist.today.com/2009/01/30/ask-the-uber-cool-nerd-god/ Melding fiction and science in life and on paper Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:46:07 +0000 http://www.today.com/version-2.3.1 By: Roy http://rocketscientist.today.com/2009/01/30/ask-the-uber-cool-nerd-god/#comment-1733 Roy Sat, 31 Jan 2009 04:27:34 +0000 http://rocketscientist.today.com/2009/01/30/ask-the-uber-cool-nerd-god/#comment-1733 No question, just a comment. I think the Unified Field Theory is less a defined thing and more of a goal everybody's chasing after, like the Holy Grail. Einstein was convinced there was such a theory, he just couldn't reach the goal, and since then everybody else has been taking a crack at it, so far unsuccessfully. Interestingly, Ursula K. LeGuin has the hero of her book <i>The Dispossessed</i>, Shevek, actually work that Holy Grail. Of course, he was a Cetian - an alien living in the Tau Ceti system - and Cetians, in LeGuin's mythos, are the mathematical geniuses of our galaxy. Shevek's theory made possible the invention of an instantaneous communications system between far-spread worlds. Hey, it's a goal, anyhow! No question, just a comment. I think the Unified Field Theory is less a defined thing and more of a goal everybody’s chasing after, like the Holy Grail. Einstein was convinced there was such a theory, he just couldn’t reach the goal, and since then everybody else has been taking a crack at it, so far unsuccessfully.

Interestingly, Ursula K. LeGuin has the hero of her book The Dispossessed, Shevek, actually work that Holy Grail. Of course, he was a Cetian - an alien living in the Tau Ceti system - and Cetians, in LeGuin’s mythos, are the mathematical geniuses of our galaxy. Shevek’s theory made possible the invention of an instantaneous communications system between far-spread worlds.

Hey, it’s a goal, anyhow!

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