Check out this story about a surfer named Garrett Lisi, who recently stunned the physics community by offering a new “theory of everything” that explains how the universe works. The fact that a surfer is gaining respect from the physics community is pretty cool. Even cooler, though, is the fact that Garrett is not a professional physicist (neither was Albert Einstein) - he contemplates the physical model of the universe as a hobby - yet his theory has grabbed everyone’s attention.
Lisi’s idea is based on an extraordinarily complicated geometric shape called E8, an eight-dimensional shape with 248 points – a pattern he thinks may describe the underlying geometry of the universe itself. The myriad of different particles and forces we perceive would then stem from this shape’s weirdly symmetric geometry.
I can’t help but wonder what would happen if we did find the key that unlocks the universe. What would matter anymore? Would we all still have to go to work?
This looks like a guy with an Uber- Etch- A -Sketch that has created the most complex mandala ever. I wonder what the Buddhist monks would make of this. But , I bet we still have to go to work every day.