Alternatives to Gauge Theories

J. D. Bjorken Stanford Linear Accelerator Center Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305 To a remarkable degree, gauge principles now permeate the description of almost all of the basic interactions of elementary particles. The proceedings of this Conference make it rather clear why this is so, and why it is hard to find any theorist (including myself) working actively and continuously on theories which lead in a direction contradictory to that of the gauge theories. This state of affairs is a great tribute to those who created and developed this impressively rich, beautiful, and promising theoretical structure and this tribute manifestly includes Ben Lee, whom we honor here. But I think this situation has its dangers. Even the greatest creative endeavors should be made in the face of a strong critical background, in order to be certain that we really proceed in the right direction. To be sure, the absence of criticism of gauge-theory ideology these days is quite understandable. To work on something else is to become a bit of a social outcast, and that is something the younger (untenured) generation may choose not to face. Also, ever since we were taught how to calculate with non-Abelian gauge theories, there have been a lot of calculations especially for weak processes to be carried through. Indeed this calculability is a hallmark of the weak-electromagnetic theories: an experimentally accessible observable may be calculated in a definite way. It may be calculated not only in one definite way, but many definite ways with many different definite answers, depending on one’s starting point. It is no wonder it is a popular