General Relativity and Cosmology Derived From Principle of Maximum Power or Force

The field equations of general relativity are shown to derive from a limit to force or to power in nature. The limits have the value of c⁴/4G and c⁵/4G. The proof makes use of a result of Jacobson. All known experimental data are consistent with the limits. Applied to the universe, the limits predict its darkness at night and the observed scale factor. Other experimental tests of the limits are proposed. The main counterarguments and paradoxes are discussed, such as the transformation under boosts, the force felt at a black hole horizon, the mountain problem, and the contrast to scalar–tensor theories of gravitation. The resolution of the paradoxes also clarifies why the maximum force and the maximum power have remained hidden for so long. The derivation of the field equations shows that the maximum force or power plays the same role for general relativity as the maximum speed plays for special relativity.