The Complementary Nature of Reality

-- -- --

The theories of modern physics have been extremely successful in helping us to predict the course of physical phenomena with a very high degree of accuracy. We can manipulate and control the world in amazing ways, providing the basis for our advanced technological culture. But our ability to understand nature has not kept pace — and we still do not have a unified model which brings the various theories and forces together.

This book argues that the key to addressing both these problems is based upon a very old idea, one that was also introduced into the new physics many years ago by the great quantum theory pioneer Niels Bohr. The thesis is called complementarity, and the task here is to transform that concept into a powerful and sophisticated general tool of analysis which can be applied pervasively to all phenomena. Put in a nutshell, the mission of this work is to demonstrate that complementarity represents the central organizing principle of nature — and as such should also serve as the core of a coherent model of nature.