David Peat

62 From Certainty to Uncertaintyto Newton. Moreover, since a coordinate is a dimensionless point, spacehas to be continuous. But how can a continuous space be preservedright down to infinitesimal distances in a discrete quantum world?In a truly satisfying theory both space-time and matter mustemerge as the limits of something deeper. In the limits of weak gravitationalfields, and speeds that are slow when compared to that of light,general relativity gives results that are indistinguishable from those ofNewtonian physics. Thus general relativity can be said to embrace andinclude Newtonian physics as a limit. So too, a deeper theory mayemerge in the future that embraces both quantum theory and relativityas its limits. Instead of attempting to unify relativity and quantumtheory, in the sense of trying to bring the two theories together, thesetheories would emerge naturally as particular aspects of a much deepertheory.There have been several approaches toward these deeper theories.One of these was attempted by the Oxford mathematician RogerPenrose, who began with basic quantum units he called twistors. Outof this space of twistors, he hoped, would emerge quantum theory,space-time, and general relativity. Again the theory worked only so farand the Holy Grail of unity continued to remain out of reach.At the moment, such a deeper theory does not exist. Bohm suggestedthat a new order is first required. This means a radical change inthe scientific language. As we saw in the previous chapter science isonly paying lip service to Niels Bohr’s revolutionary ideas while continuingto think in the more classical manner of Einstein. Bohm termedthis classical world the “explicate order.” The explicate order is our everydayworld of space, time, matter, and causality. Within this explicateorder, each object has its own position in space. Objects interact witheach other via fields of force, or move through space to collide. Thisexplicate order is well described in terms of coordinates and differentialequations.The quantum world is profoundly different. It is what Bohmtermed the world of the “implicate order.” While the explicate orderdeals in separateness and independence, the implicate order is holisticand mutually enfolding. The Aristotelian logic of the explicate worlddictates that if A contains B then B must be inside A. But within the