And academia is failing too, I can’t remember what Nobel prize mentioned that he could not get one today as most researchers are stuck in having to produce papers for the sake of keeping their grants. What would be needed is a lot of free time and freedom to think ...
Why the foundations of physics have not progressed for 40 years
21–30 of 326 posts
Re: Why the foundations of physics have not progressed for 40 years
#22Re: Why the foundations of physics have not progressed for 40 years
#23Sabine has a great YouTube channel, too => https://www.youtube.com/user/peppermint78/videos.
On the topic of the LHC, particle physics, and future colliders, I like this video => https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go2TaEUQpF4.
Re: Why the foundations of physics have not progressed for 40 years
#24As science historian John Horgan noted in The End of Science the parallel in physics is with academic humanities departments becoming mired in "irony"
The End of (one type of) Physics, and the Rise of the Machines
https://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=10680
Seems there are two possible outcomes. The deluge of data leads to better correlation which smooths over the flaws in current models. And corrects errors with some minor fudge factor that contains no further significance.
From Dark Matter to Galaxies with Convolutional Networks
https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.05965
Or something deeply profound is discovered. The thing which cannot be ignored. And instead leads to an explosion of new physics. Recognizing patterns of the latter class will perhaps always be the domain of the human operator.
Re: Why the foundations of physics have not progressed for 40 years
#25Physics has made a lot of progress in social justice and representation and these kinds of comments putting down "her point of view" is the type of toxic masculinity that will send us back 100 years.
Re: Why the foundations of physics have not progressed for 40 years
#26Good essay. Yes, the sociology and politics of the way we do science is overtaking the reproducible learning aspect. Foundations for many things, like physics, are as solid as necessary for doing a lot of work, but by the time you get to the point where you should be testing, rearranging, and ferreting out flaws in the foundations, you're so indoctrinated into a culture that you don't have the mental tools necessary to do the required work. So instead you just chug along the way the last generation did, adding a decimal point here or there.
It's not wrong. It's just not changing over time. It is stagnant.
The nice thing about physics is that with new advances in astronomy and the lack of a unified theory, it keeps getting poked with reminders that there may be missing pieces. That's not true in many other fields.
Re: Why the foundations of physics have not progressed for 40 years
#27Physics has made a lot of progress in social justice and representation and these kinds of comments putting down "her point of view" is the type of toxic masculinity that will send us back 100 years.
That statement would read as arrogance from anyone.
Re: Why the foundations of physics have not progressed for 40 years
#28I don’t get it. What does she want people to do?
She says: "And please spare me the complaints that I supposedly do not have anything better to suggest, because that is a false accusation. I have said many times that looking at the history of physics teaches us that resolving inconsistencies has been a reliable path to breakthroughs, so that’s what we should focus on . I may be on the wrong track with this, of course. But for all I can tell at this moment in histor…
But isn't that exactly what was done, e.g. in supersymmetry? The Standard Model could not explain dark matter etc., so physicists tried to come up with a new theory potentially explaining it. Yes it's based on math, on beautiful math, but isn't it always the case in physics? How did Newton create his laws? By using math. How did Einstein create his theories? By using math. It's math, math, math. So create your math theories, explain nature and then use Occam's razor to find the simplest. Maybe I'm just getting this all wrong but I don't get her point.
Re: Why the foundations of physics have not progressed for 40 years
#29And academia is failing too, I can’t remember what Nobel prize mentioned that he could not get one today as most researchers are stuck in having to produce papers for the sake of keeping their grants. What would be needed is a lot of free time and freedom to think ...
It was Peter Higgs who said that (https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/dec/06/peter-higgs-...).
Re: Why the foundations of physics have not progressed for 40 years
#30Physics has made a lot of progress in social justice and representation and these kinds of comments putting down "her point of view" is the type of toxic masculinity that will send us back 100 years.
I don’t think physics operates on anything resembling a social-justice system - nothing like the parent comment is going to send us backwards any amount of time in the field, but an attitude that bars commentary might stagnate us for a long time.