Dr. Hogan,
I found your essay to be exceptionally well-written. As you point out, the, "two great theories of twentieth century physics have never been fully reconciled, because their core ideas are incompatible."
You also note that:
1. ". . . experiments with quantum systems prove that states in reality are not localized in space."
2. ". . . the entire system is described by a wave function of possibilities."
3. "Any combined system is literally more than the sum of its parts; a composite system contains information that cannot be separated into information about one subsystem or another."
4. ". . . the quantum correlations created by interactions that we interpret as the collapse of a wave function - are entirely delocalized in space and time."
5. ". . . in quantum field theory, the quantized system is a mode of a field wave extended in space and time - a delocalized state."
6. "Quantum delocalization inspires a view of the world made not so much of material as of information. This idea may be extended to space and time as well as matter. Some properties of space and time that seem fundamental, including localization, may actually emerge only as a macroscopic approximation, from the flow of information in a quantum system."
7. ". . . but these days we could just as well say that it is all about figuring out how the system of the universe works - how its instructions are encoded, and what operating system it runs on."
I find these points thought-provoking, and have a couple of questions. As you point out, a combined system is literally more than the sum of its parts. Because the core ideas of the two great theories of the twentieth century are incompatible, yet both 'work,' might it be possible that each theory describes two very different aspects of the same system? What if the universe was, in fact, an information system? If so, might it be possible that quantum field theory describes the behavior of the 'software' aspect of the system, while the Theory of Relativity describes the behavior of the universe's 'hardware,' i.e., its physical objects?
The fact that quantum field theory describes a system in terms of a wave function of possibilities and that a quantized system is a mode of a field wave extended in space and time - a delocalized state, seems to lend itself to the possibility that it offers a description that might be akin to a description of the behavior of computer software stored in the 'cloud' of the Internet. Software in such a form would be neither 'here' nor 'there,' but 'everywhere,' and would remain in an undeterminable state until something triggered a 'collapse' of the wave system in the form of an 'answer' to a specific 'question.' What do you think?
As for the Theory of Relativity, what if it described the 'hardware' aspect of our universe. Any theory used to describe the behavior of physical objects would necessarily seem to be qualitatively different from a theory describing the behavior of software. Again, I would be interested in your thoughts on the matter.
At any rate, I enjoyed reading your essay, and think your insights are very constructive.
Best,
Ralph