Why the foundations of physics have not progressed for 40 years
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Re: Why the foundations of physics have not progressed for 40 years
#2I've read several of Sabine's blogs over several months. I think she has very good ends in mind, has courage to push back on corporate/academic inertia ... such inertia comes with any human organization ... On the negative side she's big on complaining but small on alternatives. She's also a bit too blunt/dismissive of people -- this from a person who also dislikes corporate happy talk. As such it's not clear if she'd confer distinction if she had a large budget, an institution, and group of experimentalists. An Oppenheimer? No.
Re: Why the foundations of physics have not progressed for 40 years
#3Because the sophons have been sabotaging our experimental results
Re: Why the foundations of physics have not progressed for 40 years
#4Because the sophons have been sabotaging our experimental results
Great series to all who haven't read it!
Re: Why the foundations of physics have not progressed for 40 years
#5I don’t get it. What does she want people to do?
Re: Why the foundations of physics have not progressed for 40 years
#6I don’t get it. What does she want people to do?
It does seem a bit whiny... if there are truly other options, then yea sure. But it seems the fundamental issue is that where the current theories break down, is exactly where you need high-cost accelerators to probe further. And if that's truly the case, I don't see how any amount of philosophy will solve that problem.
Re: Why the foundations of physics have not progressed for 40 years
#7Actually, string theory arose as a way of doing exactly what this person requests. It was noticed that quantum field theory and gravity do not go together, so it was attempted to do something about this. So, it did not really work out? Well, you know the thing with this kind science is that it is unknowable beforehand what you are or are not going to find.
Re: Why the foundations of physics have not progressed for 40 years
#8I dare say the author is right on many points but statements like:
"But for all I can tell at this moment in history I am the only physicist who has at least come up with an idea for what to do."
make it hard for me to share her point of view, especially as these ideas are not mentioned.
Re: Why the foundations of physics have not progressed for 40 years
#9I don’t get it. What does she want people to do?
Yeah - I am probably misunderstanding the article, but it seems to boil down to 'we haven't absolutely verified things in an experimental fashion, let's do that again instead of building theoretical mathematic constructs'. When 1) (From my perspective as a physics lay-person) that's demonstrably false, and 2.) As I didn't even see a concrete example of the _cause_ of the perceived stagnation, much less a solution.
Re: Why the foundations of physics have not progressed for 40 years
#10Indeed, theoretical physics has long ago stopped providing foundational explanations. It became strictly what essentially it had always been - a calculational tool. Whether calculations possess explanatory power is a question of psychology and sociology.