Gravity can be neither classical nor quantized

I argue that it is possible for a theory to be neither quantized nor classical. We should therefore give up the assumption that the fundamental theory which describes gravity at shortest distances must either be quantized, or quantization must emerge from a fundamentally classical theory. To illustrate my point I will discuss an example for a theory that is neither classical nor quantized, and argue that it has the potential to resolve the tensions between the quantum field theories of the standard model and general relativity. To quantize or not to quantize gravity Gravity stands apart from the other three interactions of the standard model by its refusal to be quantized. To be more precise, quantizing gravity is not the actual problem; gravity can be perturbatively quantized. The problem is that the so quantized theory cannot be used at energies close by and above the Planck energy, and thus cannot be considered a fundamental theory; it is said to be ‘nonrenormalizable,’ meaning it has no predictive power in the extremely high energy regime. This mismatch between the quantum field theories of the standard model and classical general relativity is more than an aesthetic problem: It signifies a severe shortcoming of our understanding of nature. This shortcoming has drawn a lot of attention because its resolution it is an opportunity to completely overhaul our understanding of space, time and matter. The search for a consistent theory of quantum gravity that could be applied also at Planckian energies, or strong curvature respectively, has thus lead to many proposals. But progress has been