Standard model coupled to gravitons is already kind of a unified theory. There are phenomena at the edges (neutrino mass, dark matter, dark energy) which don’t have a consensus explanation, as well as unresolved theoretical issues (Higgs finetuning, quantum gravity at high energies), but a well-defined “theory of almost everything” does already exist for accessible energies.
In Engines of Creation (“Will physics again be upended?”), @Eric Drexler pointed out that prior to quantum mechanics, physics had no calculable explanations for the properties of atomic matter. “Physics was obviously and grossly incomplete… It was a gap not in the sixth place of decimals but in the first.”
That gap was filled, and it’s an open question whether the truth about the remaining phenomena can be known by experiment on Earth. I believe in trying to know, and it’s very possible that some breakthrough in e.g. the foundations of string theory or the hard problem of consciousness, will have decisive implications for the interpretation of quantum mechanics.
If there’s an empirical breakthrough that could do it, my best guess is some quantum-gravitational explanation for the details of dark matter phenomenology. But until that happens, I think it’s legitimate to think deeply about “standard model plus gravitons” and ask what it implies for ontology.
Standard model coupled to gravitons is already kind of a unified theory. There are phenomena at the edges (neutrino mass, dark matter, dark energy) which don’t have a consensus explanation, as well as unresolved theoretical issues (Higgs finetuning, quantum gravity at high energies), but a well-defined “theory of almost everything” does already exist for accessible energies.
How is this different from the situation in the late 19th century when only a few things left seemed to need a “consensus explanation”?
In Engines of Creation (“Will physics again be upended?”), @Eric Drexler pointed out that prior to quantum mechanics, physics had no calculable explanations for the properties of atomic matter. “Physics was obviously and grossly incomplete… It was a gap not in the sixth place of decimals but in the first.”
That gap was filled, and it’s an open question whether the truth about the remaining phenomena can be known by experiment on Earth. I believe in trying to know, and it’s very possible that some breakthrough in e.g. the foundations of string theory or the hard problem of consciousness, will have decisive implications for the interpretation of quantum mechanics.
If there’s an empirical breakthrough that could do it, my best guess is some quantum-gravitational explanation for the details of dark matter phenomenology. But until that happens, I think it’s legitimate to think deeply about “standard model plus gravitons” and ask what it implies for ontology.