The Future of Post-Human Physics
Two Volume Set

Book Abstract

Is physics really so unifiable that, as Leonard Susskind once said, “the most important single thing about string theory is that it’s a highly mathematical theory, and the mathematics holds together in a very tight and consistent way. It contains in its basic structure both quantum mechanics and the theory of gravity. That’s big news”? (BQ 2017) This euphoric view on contemporary physics can be contrasted with the cautious one by Brian Greene, who warned that “the math of quantum mechanics and the math of general relativity, when they confront one another,…are ferocious antagonists and the equations don’t work.” (BQ 2017a)

Contrary to these opposing views (and other ones as will be discussed in the book), physics (in relation to macroness and microness—as well as other dichotomies) is neither possible (or impossible) nor desirable (or undesirable) to the extent that the respective ideologues (on different sides) would like us to believe, such that there is no macroness without microness (and vice versa), to be explained by the “finiteness-transfiniteness” principle, the “absoluteness-relativeness principle,” the “isolation-interaction principle,” the “order-chaos principle,” the “same-difference principle,” and other ones in “existential dialectics” (in Chapter Four), with profound implication for the current debate on the “unified theory of physics.”

But this challenge to the conventional debate does not mean that physics, as a field of study, is useless, or that those diverse fields (related to physics)—such as mathematics, chemistry, biology, psychology, engineering, computer science, technological studies, sociology, economics, political science, anthropology, history, philosophy, science fiction, religion, and so on—should be ignored. (WK 2017) Of course, neither of these extreme views is reasonable.

Rather, this book offers an alternative (better) way to understand the future of physics (and related fields) in regard to the dialectic relationship between macroness and microness (and those in other dichotomies)—while learning from different approaches in the literature but without favoring any one of them (nor integrating them, since they are not necessarily compatible with each other). More specifically, this book offers a new theory (that is, the macroscopic-microscopic theory of physics) to go beyond the existing approaches in a novel way and is organized in four chapters.

This seminal project will fundamentally change the way that we think about physics (in relation to the dialectic relationship between macroness and microness—as well as those in other dichotomies) from the combined perspectives of the mind, nature, society, and culture, with enormous implications for the human future and what I originally called its “post-human” fate.