Hawking (1988: 156-7):
The main difficulty in finding a theory that unifies gravity with the other forces is that general relativity is a “classical” theory; that is, it does not incorporate the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics. On the other hand, the other partial theories depend on quantum mechanics in an essential way. A necessary first step, therefore, is to combine general relativity with the uncertainty principle. … The trouble is, as explained in Chapter 7, that the uncertainty principle means that even “empty” space is filled with pairs of virtual particles and antiparticles. These pairs would have an infinite amount of energy and, therefore, by Einstein’s famous equation E = mc², they would have an infinite amount of mass. Their gravitational attraction would thus curve up the universe to infinitely small size.
Blogger Comments:
From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, the infinite amount of energy and mass of virtual particle-antiparticle pairs in "empty" space quantifies them as potential only. Finite amounts of energy and mass, only, are actually instantiated, and only for the limited time before the particles and antiparticles annihilate. It is because the infinities are potential only, that their gravitational attraction does not actually "curve up the universe to infinitely small size".
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