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Gravity is not a force


Nor is it a gauge theory, and this ought to motivate us to consider alternatives to quantum gravity.

So, while all the arguments in this debate have been well rehearsed across the internet, I think it’s worth outlining here, since I think it gets to the heart of Einstein's theory of gravity, General Relativity, and what makes it different to the quantum forces of nature. The equivalence principle states that from inside the elevator, Alice can’t tell if she’s freely falling towards the Earth, or instead floating gently in the outer regions of space. But history has taught as that these mathematical objects have predictive power, and so we should take the concept of spacetime seriously, just as we treat quantum fields as having ontological significance.

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