How to settle both issues, first with humor and then with common sense.

Some insurmountable limits of nature are harder to imagine than others.

All their wonders in one table

To answer Wheeler's question, we propose a topological fundamentalprinciple inspired by an approach of Dirac: Planck's quantum of action hbar is due to twist-induced crossing switches among fluctuatingstrands of Planck radius. Due to their small radius, strands areinvisible, though physically real, whereas crossing switches couple tophotons and thus are observable. Therefore, crossing switches defineall physical quantities. We verify the consequences of thefundamental principle against all basic quantum effects, starting withthe appearance of particles as rational tangles of strands, theirindistinguishability, spin, and statistics. Strands yield thequantization of action and of angular momentum and explain theprinciple of least action. The fundamental principle yields and thusexplains wave-particle duality, the emergence of wave functions andHilbert spaces, interference, Feynman's path integral formulation, theSchrödinger equation, Heisenberg's indeterminacy relation,non-commutativity, entanglement, the properties of photons,probabilities in measurements, Born's rule, decoherence, spinors,chirality, antiparticles, and the Dirac equation. In eachexplanation, the topological origin of the quantum of action appearsto be unique. Beyond quantum mechanics, strands determine particlemasses and coupling constants, solve the mass hierarchy problem forleptons, and reproduce the details and properties of physical space,of quantum field theory, of particle physics, and of generalrelativity. To allow future precision tests of the model, wecalculate the fine-structure constant.

To answer Wheeler's question, we propose a topological fundamentalprinciple inspired by an approach of Dirac: Planck's quantum of action hbar is due to twist-induced crossing switches among fluctuatingstrands of Planck radius. Due to their small radius, strands areinvisible, though physically real, whereas crossing switches couple tophotons and thus are observable. Therefore, crossing switches defineall physical quantities. We verify the consequences of thefundamental principle against all basic quantum effects, starting withthe appearance of particles as rational tangles of strands, theirindistinguishability, spin, and statistics. Strands yield thequantization of action and of angular momentum and explain theprinciple of least action. The fundamental principle yields and thusexplains wave-particle duality, the emergence of wave functions andHilbert spaces, interference, Feynman's path integral formulation, theSchrödinger equation, Heisenberg's indeterminacy relation,non-commutativity, entanglement, the properties of photons,probabilities in measurements, Born's rule, decoherence, spinors,chirality, antiparticles, and the Dirac equation. In eachexplanation, the topological origin of the quantum of action appearsto be unique. Beyond quantum mechanics, strands determine particlemasses and coupling constants, solve the mass hierarchy problem forleptons, and reproduce the details and properties of physical space,of quantum field theory, of particle physics, and of generalrelativity. To allow future precision tests of the model, wecalculate the fine-structure constant.

How our habits of thought prevent understanding nature

Recognize lies, reduce fears, satisfy curiosity, and make the world a better place

An answer to Wheeler’s question “How come the quantum?” is proposed. Our answer goes back to an approach by Dirac and proposes a topological origin for Planck’s quantum of action. We propose a new fundamental principle: the quantum of action h-bar is due to twist-induced switches of crossings among fluctuating strands of Planck radius embedded in three dimensions. Due to their small radius, strands are invisible, though physically real. Nevertheless, crossing switches due to Dirac’s trick couple to photons, are thus observable, and define all physical observables. We verify the consequences of this fundamental principleagainst the basic quantum effects. The principle yields the appearance of particles as rationaltangles of strands, their indistinguishability, spin, and statistics. The principle also yieldsthe quantization of action and of angular momentum, wave-particle duality, emergence ofwave functions and Hilbert spaces, interference, Feynman’s path integral formulation, theSchrödinger equation, Heisenberg’s indeterminacy relation, non-commutativity, entanglement,the properties of photons, probabilities in measurements, Born’s rule, decoherence,spinors, chirality, antiparticles, and the Dirac equation. Strands also yield the principle ofleast action. The topological origin of the quantum of action appears to agree with all observationsand to be unique. Strands go beyond quantum mechanics: they determine leptonmasses, solve the mass hierarchy problem, and are consistent with the properties of physicalspace, with quantum field theory, particle physics, and general relativity.

How Dirac's trick explains nature, matter, quantum theory and general relativity

No hair and maximum black hole charge

Spoiler: it is because of Dirac

Spoiler: it is because of the minimum length

It is given by c⁵/4G, about 10^52 W.

It is given by c⁴/4G and its value, about 3∙10⁴³ N, is huge.

Positively and negatively

For many decades, we - older physicists - have educated and motivated you, younger physicists, by exploring and pointing out the beauty of nature.

On the difficulty of distinguishing a glass that is almost full from one that is almost empty.

The only known explanation for nature's laziness

How strands explain the identity of inertial and gravitational mass

or how to fool researchers promising a million dollars that nobody will ever win

Only strands explain the properties of matter particles

Is nature really made of strands or is thus just a mathematical model?