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>The bleeding edge of theoretical physics, especially in the past 60-70 years has really shifted towards almost the metaphysical regardless of how much elegant
by eli_gottlieb 10y ago
>The bleeding edge of theoretical physics, especially in the past 60-70 years has really shifted towards almost the metaphysical regardless of how much elegant math there is behind it.
Which is a major problem, given the truism that theory is under-determined by experimental evidence! If given any simple theory of physics I can construct a more complicated theory that makes the same predictions, then we desperately need to confine ourselves to theories that do make unique predictions, lest we be generating ever-more-complicated versions of theories we already had.
- jjoonathan 10y agoThat's like saying "we need to confine ourselves to business plans that make money." Everyone understands and agrees on the importance of this as an ultimate goal but nobody knows the path to get there -- the hard work is in trying and rejecting promising paths until you find one that works.
- mirimir 10y agoRight. So there's room for developing hypotheses that we don't yet know how to test. Because some branch might be testable, or some new technology might become available. Just as with business plans and profit. But at some point, someone should maybe call bullshit. Kuhn etc have explored criteria. One of them, as I recall, is asymptotically increasing complexity.
- naasking 10y agoThe focus hasn't been on developing more complicated theories, but instead on developing less complicated theories. This provides additional explanatory power, and provides a mental model in which we can ponder thought experiments that may yield further insights. For instance, many-worlds is actually conceptually and formally simpler than Copenhagen.