The Great Innovation

PROLOGUE

Niels Bohr had been in attendance at a lecture in which Wolfgang Pauli proposed a new theory of particles. Pauli came under heavy criticism ... which Bohr summed up for him: "We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question which divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct. My own feeling is that it is not crazy enough." When the great innovation appears, it will almost certainly be in a muddled, incomplete and confusing form. To the discoverer himself it will be only half understood ... to everybody else it be a mystery. For any speculation which does not at first glance look crazy, there is no hope. F Dyson

Though true answers there can be none ... science is fated to fret about such problems. It must forever spin tentative theories about them, seeking to entrap therewith some germ of truth upon which to poise its intricate super-structure. B. Hoffman

What look like mere scratches on the brilliant surface of the domain of quantum physics reveal themselves as fascinating crevasses betraying the darkness within and luring the intrepid on to new adventure. Nor does quantum mechanics hold undisputed sway but must share dominion with that other rebel, relativity ... and though, together, these two theories have led to the most penetrating advances in our search for knowledge, they must yet remain enemies. Their fundamental disagreement will not be resolved until both are subdued by a still more powerful theory which will sweep away our present painfully won fancies concerning such things as space and time, matter, radiation, and causality. The nature of this theory may only be surmised, but that it will ultimately come is as certain as that our civilization will endure ... no more nor less. B. Hoffman