Mosala replied, frustrated, “Yes! But even if she’s right … when those ‘statements which have to be true’ are coupled with real, tangible experiments – which are very much ‘out there in the world’ – the theory ceases to be pure mathematics … in the same way that the pure symmetry of pre-space ceases to be symmetrical.

“Newton came up with the inverse square law by analyzing existing astronomical observations . By treating the solar system in the way I treat a particle accelerator: saying, ‘This much we know for a fact.’ Later, the law was used to make predictions – and those predictions turned out to be correct. Okay … but where exactly does the physical content reside, in that whole process? With the inverse-square law itself … or with the observed motions of the planets, from which that equation was deduced in the first place? Because if you stop treating Newton’s law as something given, standing outside the whole show as an eternal truth, and look at … the link, the bridge … between all the different planets orbiting different stars, coexisting in the same universe, having to be consistent with each other … what you’re doing starts to become much more like pure mathematics.”

I thought I had an inkling of what she was suggesting. “It’s a bit like saying that … the general principle that ‘people form net clans with other people with whom they have something in common’ has nothing to do with what those common interests happen to be. Exactly the same process brings together … fans of Jane Austen, or students of the genetics of wasps, or whatever.”

“Right. Jane Austen ‘belongs’ to all the people who read her – not to the sociological principle which suggests that they’ll get together to discuss her books. And the law of gravity ‘belongs’ to all the systems which obey it – not to a TOE which predicts that they’ll get together to form a universe.

“And maybe the Theory of Everything should collapse into nothing but ‘statements about numbers which have to be true.’ Maybe pre-space itself has to melt into nothing but simple arithmetic, simple logic – leaving us with no choices to make about its structure at all.”

I laughed. “I think even SeeNet’s audience might have some trouble wrapping their minds around that .” I certainly did. “Look, maybe it’s going to take a while for you and Helen Wu to make sense of all this. We can always do an update on it, back in Cape Town, if it turns out to be an important development.”

Mosala agreed, relieved. Throwing ideas around was one thing, but she clearly didn’t want to take a position on this, officially. Not yet.

Before I could lose my nerve, I said, “Do you think you’ll still be living in Cape Town, in six months’ time?”