Has a surfer Ph.D. rewritten physics? Maybe.

My knowledge of mathematics is dwarfed by anybody with a higher degree in the subject, and Algebra (the abstract kind, not the kind with lots of letters) was my worst subject, but part of me is a bit pleased that E8 might be related to an important bit of physics. It's a rather interesting structure, although not 'the largest' as the article claims, as there are some which (if I recall correctly), reach into million-dimensionality.

E8 also has some interesting properties relating to symmetry, so I'm not surprised that it gets used in physics. It's just a pity that the universe couldn't be related to A4, or A8, because I can actually grasp what's happening in those groups.

Even if he's wrong, it goes to show that stepping outside the mainstream can often times be the only way to starting out on a novel, and potentially revolutionary, approach.

I'm not entirely keen on the hubbub refered to(the articles on Lisi from about this time last year?)

Here is another article I read the other day, probably pretty similar, but it wasn't bad

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/21/080721fa_fact_...

Have a pleasure of knowing Garrett, his foot once helped bring traffic to my site: http://joe.jaanix.com/22679-nuke-cerenkov-glow :)

You might also soon hear about his friend mentioned in the article, Brandyn. He's working on a problem that is just as important as ToE. They had a running joke: who would find ToE first, Garrent by math and thinking or Brandyn by inventing AI that would do it for him.

From the link: "the overlap between the set of people who know some group theory and those who are (still) interested in giving Lisi’s “Theory of Everything” a passing thought is empty."

This Lubos Motl guy seems to be a sort of Erik Naggum of physics. Yikes.