The string theory hype machine will never die
math.columbia.edu
The string theory hype machine will never die
1–10 of 71 posts
Re: The string theory hype machine will never die
#2All it needs is an experiment that can test it.
Re: The string theory hype machine will never die
#3Thanks to Michio Kaku.
Re: The string theory hype machine will never die
#4The first paper they link to is not about string theory. It's using math that was developed for string theory, and is perfectly valid outside it, to make predictions that can be (and are) experimentally validated.
It has exactly none of the problems of string theory, and I am not sure why it's clumped with a physics paper in the blog. How is it a problem to say "hey they used string theory tools!" in a press release? If anything it might get other people to look at the math and get something good out of it...
Re: The string theory hype machine will never die
#5All it needs is an experiment that can test it.
If they had that the hype could die. Luckily it cannot be tested so the hype will continue in perpetuity
Re: The string theory hype machine will never die
#6It reminds of this quote from Roger Penrose's book, Fashion, Faith, and Fantasy in the New Physics of the Universe:
“My nervousness was perhaps at its greatest because the illustrative area that I had elected to discuss, namely string theory and some of its various descendants, had been developed to its heights in Princeton probably more than anywhere else in the world.”
“Moreover, that subject is a distinctly technical one, and I cannot claim competence over many of its important ingredients, my familiarity with these technicalities being somewhat limited, particularly in view of my status as an outsider.”
“Yet, if only the insiders are considered competent to make critical comments about the subject, then the criticisms are likely to be limited to relatively technical issues, some of the broader aspects of criticism being, no doubt, significantly neglected.”
The fact that Penrose felt nervous criticizing string theory has made me think less of string theory (or rather, the humans behind it) ever since.
Re: The string theory hype machine will never die
#7All it needs is an experiment that can test it.
If they had that the hype could die. Luckily it cannot be tested so the hype will continue in perpetuity
Heh... as someone on the outside, I feel the need to ask:
Has it been rigorously shown that it can never be tested? Or is that your prediction?
Re: The string theory hype machine will never die
#8It feels like Woit is just being a hater at this point. In a meritocracy, talent and funding gravitate toward the most promising options. If string theory took up a large proportion of people and resources, it’s because it solved technical problems no other framework could. Even if it hasn't yielded a Theory of Everything, the fact that its toolkit is now solving problems in other fields suggests the program has led to some success. Now that the field is in a lull, we're seeing a natural institutional rebalancing. Talent is simply self-allocating toward more fertile ground, which is exactly how a healthy scientific ecosystem should function.
Re: The string theory hype machine will never die
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
If they had that the hype could die. Luckily it cannot be tested so the hype will continue in perpetuity
Heh... as someone on the outside, I feel the need to ask: Has it been rigorously shown that it can never be tested? Or is that your prediction?
They are getting close to making a testable prediction, any day now. Have been for the last 30 years. History is not always an indication of the future, but it is often a good sign.
But yes, not rigorous.
Re: The string theory hype machine will never die
#10All it needs is an experiment that can test it.
One day when I'm not being lazy I might publish a point by point refutation of the usual nonsense anti-string theory memes. Until then, here's what I said on this point 25 days ago, specifically the first paragraph starting with "like another commenter".