Sir Issac Newton and Murray Gell-Mann Agree: Nature Will Be “Conformable”
Newton: “Nature will be very conformable to herself and very simple”. (I. Newton, Opticks, Book III, part1, Query 31.) [2]
Gell-Mann: “Nature Conformable to Herself: Arguments for a Unified Theory of the Universe”, Complexitiy, 1 (1995/96), https://doi.org/10.1002/cplx.6130010404
If these two scientists envisioned a unified understanding of nature in which conformal symmetry plays a critical role, perhaps it is an idea worth looking into, and exploring further without preconceived assumptions.
The problem is that the recent attempts to find the correct path to a more unified understanding of nature, including Grand Unified Theory, Supersymmetry, Supergravity, and the many iterations of String Theory, have not panned out.
There is a largely unexplored path to a more unified paradigm that is based on direct observation of nature, can be tested by future observations, and has global conformal symmetry as a fundamental principle.
At this particular point in the history of theoretical physics, perhaps it is an appropriate time to consider a few new fundamental assumptions.