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String Theory
Jan. 8th, 2007 06:46 amI have a lot of contempt for string theory.
Let me get some things off my chest: many string theorists, including all of the principal ones, are better mathematicians than I am, and also better physicists. Although I came to my objections on my own, they were originally put forward by eminent physicists of a prior generation. Consequently, this all smacks of hatin'. Furthermore, I had a lot of contempt for the string theorists I knew when I was in school- more hatin'- but that was primarily because of the kind of people they were and not the nature of their work.
String theory is a complicated mathematical scheme that is largely experimentally untestable. In fact, many stringies look upon that as a virtue. A properly-constructed string theory can be pushed into arbitrarily close agreement with known physics, and has a wide degree of adjustability to suit ambiguities and new discoveries. Its principal virtue is mathematical elegance and complexity.
Ptolemaic explanations of the solar system took as a given that the planets (and the Sun) revolved around the Earth. Another given was that celestial objects travelled in circles. To account for discrepancies between observations and the celestial behavior suggested by the model, theorists added "epicycles"- circular flourishes the planets periodically allowed themselves as they travelled along their major, circular paths around the Earth. At its mature stage of development, the Ptolemaic theory agreed completely with the known results of observation. An elaborate, adjustable system was built from first principles- that the planets move in (a) circular orbits around (b) the Earth.
Modern observations, along with actually, you know, sending things into space, has confirmed that the planets travel in ellipses around the sun, and that, in fact, the Earth does this too. So... the Ptolemaic cosmology is ingenious bullshit.
But, of course, modern smart people could never bullshit themselves like that. Not in physics. Because modern physicists, unlike modern international-relations experts, modern physicians, and modern economists, not to mention every other type of modern scientist or intellectual worker, are just too smart.
I love mathematically elegant things. But if mathematical elegance implied physical reality, physical constants would be expressed in rounder numbers. :p
Let me get some things off my chest: many string theorists, including all of the principal ones, are better mathematicians than I am, and also better physicists. Although I came to my objections on my own, they were originally put forward by eminent physicists of a prior generation. Consequently, this all smacks of hatin'. Furthermore, I had a lot of contempt for the string theorists I knew when I was in school- more hatin'- but that was primarily because of the kind of people they were and not the nature of their work.
String theory is a complicated mathematical scheme that is largely experimentally untestable. In fact, many stringies look upon that as a virtue. A properly-constructed string theory can be pushed into arbitrarily close agreement with known physics, and has a wide degree of adjustability to suit ambiguities and new discoveries. Its principal virtue is mathematical elegance and complexity.
Ptolemaic explanations of the solar system took as a given that the planets (and the Sun) revolved around the Earth. Another given was that celestial objects travelled in circles. To account for discrepancies between observations and the celestial behavior suggested by the model, theorists added "epicycles"- circular flourishes the planets periodically allowed themselves as they travelled along their major, circular paths around the Earth. At its mature stage of development, the Ptolemaic theory agreed completely with the known results of observation. An elaborate, adjustable system was built from first principles- that the planets move in (a) circular orbits around (b) the Earth.
Modern observations, along with actually, you know, sending things into space, has confirmed that the planets travel in ellipses around the sun, and that, in fact, the Earth does this too. So... the Ptolemaic cosmology is ingenious bullshit.
But, of course, modern smart people could never bullshit themselves like that. Not in physics. Because modern physicists, unlike modern international-relations experts, modern physicians, and modern economists, not to mention every other type of modern scientist or intellectual worker, are just too smart.
I love mathematically elegant things. But if mathematical elegance implied physical reality, physical constants would be expressed in rounder numbers. :p
