The existence of a fundamental scale is expected to be a key feature of quantum gravity. Many approaches take this property as a starting assumption. Here, instead, we take a less conventional viewpoint based on a critical inspection of both fundamental principles and kinematic laws. We point out that rigorous arguments suggest a more urgent need to revise known theories to incorporate a fundamental acceleration scale already in flat space. The reciprocity principle can naturally do so. In addition to noticing links with string theory, we argue that the reciprocity principle implies an infinite-derivative generalization of the Einstein-Hilbert action that makes the gravitational interaction fundamentally nonlocal, thus providing a guiding principle that could lead us towards the formulation of a consistent theory of quantum gravity.
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