Our basic ideas about physics went through several upheavals early this century. Quantum mechanics taught us that the classical notions of the position and velocity of a particle were only approximations of the truth. With general relativity, spacetime became a dynamical variable, curving in response to mass and energy. Contemporary developments in theoretical physics suggest that another revolution may be in progress, through which a new source of “fuzziness” may enter physics, and spacetime itself may be reinterpreted as an approximate, derived concept. (See figure 1.) In this article I survey some of these developments.
REFERENCES
1.
J. H. Schwarz, ed., Superstrings: The First 15 Years of Superstring Theory," vols. 1 and 2. World‐Scientific, Singapore (1985).
2.
For instance, see M. B. Green, J. H. Schwarz, E. Witten, Superstring Theory, vol. 1, Cambridge U.P., Cambridge, UK (1987), chap. 1.
3.
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© 1996 American Institute of Physics.
1996
American Institute of Physics
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