Mark...as an aside, superstrings bear an uncanny resemblance to some of the purely theoretical constructs in the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead in the 1940s. The actual nomenclature is irrelevant, but Whitehead's system attempts, and mostly suceeds, in giving a structure to what MUST be taken into account in order to even contemplate the basic makeup of reality.

   As one reads Whitehead, it becomes slippery over whether one is doing physics, metaphysics or a non-religious theology...or all of those at once. (I left school with ½ a masters thesis outlined on whether it was possible to solve the question of "free will" using Whitehead's concepts.)