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Athene’s ‘Theory of Everything’ – A new take on neuroscience in relation to quantum physicsAthene’s Theory of EverythingEarlier this week I was fortunate enough to speak with Chiren Boumaaza, aka Athene, who you may know as the extravagant internet celebrity, and professional gamer.If you haven’t heard of him, he’s a record holder in World of Warcraft and online poker, and plays the main character in a series of videos on a popular youtube channel with well over 340,000 subscribers.’Athene’ is known for crashing gaming servers, with the aid of his massive army of followers, who just love to be part of the controversy and trouble Athene is so well known for.Over the past year, we haven’t heard much from him, and it seemed as though he had fallen off the grid. Recently Chiren broke his silence, and announced that his disappearance was due to being very busy, conducting new research in the fields of quantum mechanics, general and special relativity, and neuroscience. He continued to say that this research is culminating in significant new discoveries that will be presented in a documentary named ‘Athene’s Theory of Everything’. This was definitely an unexpected turn, and caused quite a stir, and some confusion within his fan base.While this could seem bizarre and hokey, the explanations Chiren gave about his research during a livestream event sounded solid, and I was intrigued. I wanted to hear more details about what he was working on.Reese Leysen and Chiren BoumaazaLuckily for me, I was able to get in touch with Reese Leysen on twitter. Reese is part of the Athene crew and is a long-time viral video collaborator (and now documentary maker). I must say, it was surprisingly easy to get a hold of Chiren, though he has made it very clear that once the documentary is released, he will not be involved in any of the surrounding media coverage. (which just means more work for Reese!)During my conversation with Chiren, I learned that for the past year, he had apparently been engaged in scientific research with the same dedication and out-of-the-box thinking that we’ve seen in his record-setting stunts in online gaming. He spent a lot of time gathering relevant scientific papers, and delving into them in depth.Using his newly acquired information and understanding, he was able to come up with an incredible amount of new correlations that, as he puts it, “solve a huge list of current problems in physics”. If proven correct, his findings would not only have practical, but also deeply philosophical implications.The findings and correlations presented are just now hitting the world wide web, along with the documentary, and have not yet been peer reviewed. I am very much looking forward to seeing what experts in the fields have to say about this interesting new stuff.Athene’s ‘Theory of Everything’ doesn’t only refer to the scientific concept of a unified field theory, but also to the scope of his research, which encompasses everything that has deep significance regarding the way science can affect our views on life, death and reality, ranging from neuroscience to particle physics.Being an engineer, I was really happy to see no sensationalized or metaphysical claims in the documentary. On the contrary, it was great to see how he rigorously took the scientific method to heart in all aspects of his work, without making any of the esoteric correlations that modern quantum theorists sometimes resort to. Chiren’s writing, which the documentary is based on, looks to science with respect for its roots in openness and skepticism, while bringing back the sense of wonder, that remarkable scientists such as Carl Sagan used to instill us with.As with all new ideas, I imagine not everyone will agree with his views on things. Regardless, the documentary will undoubtedly quickly become popular, as it deals with the subjects of reality, quantum mechanics, neuroscience and human psychology. And who knows, perhaps it will even win the heart of the scientific community (in the event the findings are verified).I would like to say congratulations to both Chiren and Reese on a job very well done. They both put huge amounts of effort into this, and it shows. It is so very well written, the graphics and music are fantastic, as is the narration.I do encourage you to take a look at this documentary. It’s very well made, and has very positive underlying messages on the significance of scientific thinking, the importance of the Internet’s openness, and the importance of keeping an open mind, just to name a few.