111–120 of 196 posts
That started off like it was going to have useful suggestions, but then devolved into "me against particle physicists", and became a bit of a self-promotion-cum-pre-defence. I'd like to hear more about these suggestions.
I only have a master in (engineering) physics but working with statistical modeling and AI I’ve come to appreciate the “all models are wrong but some models are useful”-mindset, and I’ve started applying that to physical “laws” as well: I no longer see them as some divine truths waiting to be discovered, but more like models of the world that will always be wrong but sometimes useful. From that point of view what’s h…
“More importantly, everyone can see that nothing useful is coming out of particle physics, it’s just a sink of money.” -cry of a (wo)man hypnotized by capitalism. You cannot waste money, we made it up and can make more. Alternatively, you can explore the universe. I would be more open to the idea that the only reason some people want to understand anything is because they want control over it. Here we see that the au…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> She also explains the ideas behind her views (which comes down to "particle physics are no longer useful") This comment is in bad faith. She says the problem is lack of progress since the 1970s. She claims that either: The theories produced since then have been falsified, OR that they have been made unfalsifiable (and she names SUSY as an example of the latter). She says that she's a particle physicist hoping for t…
Was the Higgs boson discovery not progress in particle physics? Wasn't that only like 10 years ago?
Twitter seems so persistently corrosive and unhappiness-inducing. Why is it? The author's complaints are about other physicists' behaviors and attitudes to her writing, but it looks like much of it is specifically about Twitter interactions: about unhappy, defective people on Twitter (smart physicists, even) drawing other people into their miasma. These are people using Twitter with good intentions : smart people who…
> Twitter seems so persistently corrosive and unhappiness-inducing. Why is it? > These are people using Twitter with good intentions I've seen a few good articles on the phenomenon, but I think it boils down to the fact that Twitter encourages/rewards constant conversation and anyone can pop up in any conversation. As a result, it rewards the most abrasive people who tweet the most. No sane, well-adjusted person with…
This is a blogpost by Sabine Hossenfelder summarizing her criticisms of particle physics. None of the above information is in the blogpost or HN post title, which is annoying.
It's my opinion that a lot of science today is theoretical BS. I'm glad sometimes, someone is pointing it out. When i do it myself, i get bombarded with hate. Sigh. even when it's not science, when it's about programming (my profession). And the one thing i learned is: PEOPLE WILL NOT CHANGE THEIR MIND. You can even come with proof and people wont change. They will just ignore u after you've proven it, and keep sayin…
In science it's also their grant funding and reputation, that is at stake.
I only have a master in (engineering) physics but working with statistical modeling and AI I’ve come to appreciate the “all models are wrong but some models are useful”-mindset, and I’ve started applying that to physical “laws” as well: I no longer see them as some divine truths waiting to be discovered, but more like models of the world that will always be wrong but sometimes useful. From that point of view what’s h…
Overfitted models do serve a purpose here though - particle physics has reached a point where you can't build models and theories on direct observation so instead the community is throwing a huge number of falsifiable overfitted models with the expectation that all but one or two will actually be confirmed experimentally. It's certainly a time consuming, expensive, non-ideal approach, but valid. The authors argument…
Twitter seems so persistently corrosive and unhappiness-inducing. Why is it? The author's complaints are about other physicists' behaviors and attitudes to her writing, but it looks like much of it is specifically about Twitter interactions: about unhappy, defective people on Twitter (smart physicists, even) drawing other people into their miasma. These are people using Twitter with good intentions : smart people who…
> Twitter seems so persistently corrosive and unhappiness-inducing. Why is it? > These are people using Twitter with good intentions I've seen a few good articles on the phenomenon, but I think it boils down to the fact that Twitter encourages/rewards constant conversation and anyone can pop up in any conversation. As a result, it rewards the most abrasive people who tweet the most. No sane, well-adjusted person with…