The term “thing theory” is a joke, but not a joke about physics.

Question: If you understand both “thing theory” and string theory, do you understand the whole universe?

Bill Brown:  Oh, yeah, absolutely, I understand the universe as a whole.  I know, it's funny, some people will say to me, thing theory, what a strange concept, and then I sometimes will say, well, of course, thing theory is a kind of a joke.  And people will say, oh, yes, because it's a play on string theory, and that's actually not the joke that I mean.  But it's interesting that a bunch of people do, and I'm sure that with enough effort, I could actually make that joke really work for a few people, and for myself.  The joke as I understand is much more, oh, surely things are precisely not what is theory.  You know, like, oh, gee, one races to the concrete in order to avoid theories, so now, you know, now we have to actually have to have thing theory along with all these other theories, that for me is more of a joke.

Recorded on March 4, 2010
Interviewed by Austin rnAllen