Theory of everything

A theory of everything (TOE) is a theory of theoretical physics and mathematics that fully explains and links together all known physical phenomena. Initially, the term was used with an ironic connotation to refer to various overgeneralized theories. For example, a great-grandfather of Ijon Tichy — a character from a cycle of Stanis?aw Lem's science fiction stories of 1960s — was known to work on "General Theory of Everything" (Polish: "Ogólna Teoria Wszystkiego"). Over time, the term stuck in popularizations of quantum physics to describe a theory that would unify the theories of the four fundamental interactions of nature.

References

• The Theory of Everything: The Origin and Fate of the Universe is an unauthorized 2002 book taken from lectures recorded by Stephen Hawking (ISBN 1893224791)
• A Theory of Everything: An Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Science and Spirituality, 2000 (ISBN 1570628556) is a book by philosopher Ken Wilber which considers "everything" to include the metaphysical as well as the physical