On the Impossibility of Precise Verification of Models of Quantum Gravity

Abstract: We argue that no theoretical model of quantum gravity in a causal diamond whose boundary has finite maximal area, can be verified with arbitrary precision by experiments done in that diamond. This shows in particular that if our own universe remains in an asymptotically future de Sitter state for a time long enough for our local group of galaxies to collapse into a black hole, then no information processing system with which we can communicate could ever distinguish between many competing models of the AsdS universe. This article is written in an attempt to be accessible to a wide audience, so certain elementary facts about quantum mechanics are reviewed, briefly.