The current direction of physics is toward smaller and smaller particles, however should we continue to believe a strict reductionist position that ‘fundamental’ refers to the smallest objects? We must also consider as fundamental the most important influences, which in more and more cases can only be understood using the concept of ‘emergence’ and of phenomena at a larger scale. These emergent phenomena appear to be converging upon some unifying structure along which they can be understood. An identification of this structure is proposed indicating we need to move beyond the limitations of our current tools and see these ‘emergent’ phenomena along the continuum of scale, which is a fundamental concept along which to locate these phenomena.
Donald G Palmer