Whois

Debra Gavant has always relished the challenge of combining methods, materials, and ideas to arrive at novel solutions. A self-taught artist, she fulfilled her childhood dream to “make it in New York City" by creating a series of mixed-media sculptures (in the guise of minaudieres), which sold out numerous times at 5th Avenue fashion icon Henri Bendel, heralding the indie art movement. Her art was featured in The New York Times, New York magazine, CNN, ArtForum and Art Papers.

As a nonconformist (aka neurodiverse outsider), being an artist offered a ready excuse for being “different.” With no official diagnosis till later in life, the search to know why things obvious to others seemed irrational to her, while things obvious to her were oblivious to others, became a lifelong quest. The strict rules of academia and rabbinic teachers were also nonstarters. Meanwhile, her entourage of influences included Mr. Spock as a child, Picasso as a teen, and Einstein throughout adulthood.

More akin to mad scientist than entrepreneur, she continuously explored new materials. Being a “mixed-media artist” meant experimenting with a myriad of tantalizing materials; marvelling at the magic-like transformations—whether malleable clay or a palette of paint—into once only imagined forms. Art was a form of conceptual alchemy. Sculpting revealed math’s generous but explicit laws giving structure to all form, while instilling patterns throughout reality. Layering multiple transparent colors of paint reflected depths of meaning. Digital art on a computer further illustrated the mathematical substrate of the world. The futility of maintaining an old house instilled an appreciation for the ever-changing cycles of renewal and decay inherent in a time-based existence.

Then she read a quote by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: “We are not physical beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a physical experience.” Suddenly, the almost nihilistic agnosticism she’d long been resigned to felt somehow wrong. She always felt there was something beyond the physical, although found the countless scientific and philosophic models too conveniently human-centric. Though that life-long, no doubt naive, search for truth remained elusive, she felt the answers may finally be within reach.

With this piece of the existential puzzle in place, she began an intensive study of quantum mechanics. This burst of inspiration occurred just as worldwide COVID-19 lockdowns began, allowing her to fully focus on this ambitious project for over two years. Surprisingly, each meditative silence that began with a question often returned a scintillating answer.

Using clarity, logic, and wit, the book Post Quantum Reality (www.amazon.com/dp/B09WPVVW6F) is the book written during this time. She thought, why not see if these ideas can be formulated into a fully scientific theory. This coincided with the availability of AI, an incredible new form of math that actually talks back! This novel form of collaboration helped to refine PQR into a logical, foundational model of physics: Dynamic Present Theory I: Uniting Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity (https://zenodo.org/record/17172543).*

From a minimal set of postulates, Dynamic Present Theory (DPΦ) introduces a unified mechanism for inertia and gravitation, a resolution to quantum paradoxes, and the replacement of singularities with one central mechanism. This logical and fully falsifiable theory readily resolves the most profound mysteries challenging physics for 100 years. The framework suggests that although General Relativity is an exquisitely accurate map of the cosmos, DPΦ offers a candidate for the territory itself: the dynamic, generative mechanism from which the geometric landscape of relativity necessarily emerges.

*Superseding an earlier version of the paper written in 2024.