This is the phrase I needed to hear: " You cannot simply say
that spacetime is the string or the "sheet" traced by the string
as it moves, because it has not enough algebra to describe what
can be described in standard general relativity. That's a
problem which has been "pushed away" by means of the holographic
principle which states that gravity will be forced to obey
string theory."* Andrei Tudor Patrascu, theoretical physicist
[and a good friend of mine] Indeed. So often the task of
bringing two less-than-compatible things together (it's not just
in physics) brings many answers to the table that require one
side or the other to COMPLETELY abandon something critical and
submit to the will of the other side. Of course that's not
acceptable so negotiations continue.
