4 ms·

Speaking as a professor specializing in string theory, I'd say, "More power to her." I have no idea whether string theory gets too much attention relative to it

by Steuard 10y ago

Speaking as a professor specializing in string theory, I'd say, "More power to her." I have no idea whether string theory gets too much attention relative to its actual value in modeling the real world, but I think one essential part of finding the right amount of attention for any physical theory is for theorists to make their best judgement about what's worth their time to study. In fact, it's quite comforting to me to see people deciding to focus in other directions: to my eye, that means the system is working (though perhaps the author would argue it's not working efficiently), and I'd hate to see other worthwhile angles of attack wither away purely due to lack of attention. For myself, I got excited about string theory in grad school and decided to go that route, and I'm still finding it fascinating today. (And it still feels worthwhile to keep studying it, though perhaps I'm not quite as optimistic about its ultimate success as I was 15 years ago.)

tamana 10y ago
So you feel strong theory connects to reality, and is falsifiable and avoids "piling on epicycles"? Will string theory be more parsimonious than the the more concrete model of physics it tries to model?
- 4ad 10y ago
  Of course string theory is falsifiable. String theory reduces to quantum field theory in some limit and to general relativity in some other limit. Unlike all the other previous theories, string theory is the theory that has resisted all efforts to falsify it yet. It's a ridiculous misconception floating around that string theory can't make predictions, when in fact string theory is the only theory we have so far that predicts all known observed phenomena.
  - cygx 10y ago
    String theory reduces to quantum field theory in some limit and to general relativity in some other limit. That's nice and clearly shows why string theory research is a worthwhile endeavor, but you only get a gold star once you make an experimentally verified new prediction. There is a reason why people were excited about the discovery of the Higgs boson.
  - Ma8ee 10y ago
    > tring theory is the only theory we have so far that predicts all known observed phenomena. That would have been impressive if it didn't also predicts even more that is neither known or observed.
acqq 10y ago
From one of the comments by the article author: "I am far from "silent" on what should be done. I have said here and many times before that what needs to be done is to take measures against social and cognitive biases. If people still work in masses on string theory after that, so fine."

by Steuard 10y ago

tamana 10y ago

So you feel strong theory connects to reality, and is falsifiable and avoids "piling on epicycles"? Will string theory be more parsimonious than the the more concrete model of physics it tries to model?

4ad 10y ago
Of course string theory is falsifiable. String theory reduces to quantum field theory in some limit and to general relativity in some other limit. Unlike all the other previous theories, string theory is the theory that has resisted all efforts to falsify it yet. It's a ridiculous misconception floating around that string theory can't make predictions, when in fact string theory is the only theory we have so far that predicts all known observed phenomena.
- cygx 10y ago
  String theory reduces to quantum field theory in some limit and to general relativity in some other limit. That's nice and clearly shows why string theory research is a worthwhile endeavor, but you only get a gold star once you make an experimentally verified new prediction. There is a reason why people were excited about the discovery of the Higgs boson.
- Ma8ee 10y ago
  > tring theory is the only theory we have so far that predicts all known observed phenomena. That would have been impressive if it didn't also predicts even more that is neither known or observed.

acqq 10y ago

From one of the comments by the article author: "I am far from "silent" on what should be done. I have said here and many times before that what needs to be done is to take measures against social and cognitive biases. If people still work in masses on string theory after that, so fine."