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developed by the group known as "the Princeton string quartet,"
David Gross, Jeff Harvey, Emile Martinec, and Ryan Rohm.
Perhaps most important of all, even more accurately than one can
predict the beauty of the music from the Guarneri quartet, for exam–
ple, the new superstring theory should allow physicists to calculate
precisely its consequences. Moreover, just as one knows by the
sound of the Guarneri's music without looking at the score that they
are playing the piece the way it is meant to be played, contemporary
physicists have faith that we will also know the correct theory by its
internal consistency and beauty . Several groups are currently direct–
ing their research toward the reformulation of string theory in a
more elegant version . However, unless we can calculate quantities
which can be measured in the laboratory, the theory remains in the
realm of mathematical metaphysics.
In addition to the curling up of the extra dimensions, the new
candidate for a unified theory of everything (with the often-used
acronym TOE) predicts a structure of space-time that is radically
new . Our understanding of the structure of space-time has long in–
volved an evolution away from thinking of ourselves as the center of
the universe. Copernicus made a revolutionary advance by stating
that the earth is not at the center of the solar system. Then , in the
twentieth century, the principle of relativity advanced our thought to
the realization that there is no absolute frame of reference in the
universe. The basic consequence of quantum mechanics is that the
outcome of experiments are no longer determined absolutely, but
only probabilistically, and therefore, the question of where some–
thing is can never be predicted with certainty.
The above brief historical evolution of human thought can be
compared with the development of children's thought. There is also
a process of learning of the limitations of the self as children learn
that there exist other people with their own needs, other perspectives
needing consideration, and uncertainty in day-to-day life. Piaget
used very abstract principles with mathematical operations and sym–
metry to describe the structures existing in a child's mind that
underlie his behavior. The child develops increasingly sophisticated
operations until his mental logic works harmoniously with the logic
of the world . The consideration of this type of logic brings us to our
next point.
These advances in understanding all depend on the idea that
the universe is made of points. In order for there to be a center, there
must be a point which is central. Even a frame of reference is known
