4 ms·

Because it's made up, just like Harry Potter. "Theory Space" the name alone should give you red flags. Sounds like another term for 'scientists discovered' wh

Because it's made up, just like Harry Potter. "Theory Space" the name alone should give you red flags. Sounds like another term for 'scientists discovered' what Aristotle already knew 2400 years ago... the term "potentiality".

qubex 9y ago
That’s where I have to disagree... as most mathematicians I tend towards the idea that mathematical structures are discovered (even though techniques might be invented). There’s clearly an underlying pattern to physics, and the two main theories have to be reconciled somehow since the Universe hangs together pretty coherently; it’s just as obvious (to me, at least) that they’re mapping something with these procedures and that what they’re finding is not a side-effect of the procedure that gets randomly instantiated by the algorithm.
empath75 9y ago
Why should 'theory space' throw red flags? If you have a set of 'theories' with some structure attached to it, you have a 'theory space'.
- thanatropism 9y ago
  Usually the structure in "space" is topological, i.e. some concept of a "neighborhood".
  - Steuard 9y ago
    And indeed there is a concept of "neighborhood" here: a set of parameters characterizing the conformal field theory in question.
reacweb 9y ago
My personal red flag is the lack of formula or theorem. For me a beautiful formula is often more enlightening than a lengthy explanation. Fancy names occur in very serious mathematical articles.
- qubex 9y ago
  There’s plenty of underlying mathematics and formulae (albeit being conjectures, probably not many overarching theorems for these specific theories yet). However I expect they decided against printing anything ’mathematical’, probably because the notation would be so dense with additional meanings it would be likewise indistinguishable from gibberish (for the layman, at least).
dang 9y ago
Please don't post snarky, shallow dismissals to HN. That's just what we're hoping to avoid here. Fortunately qubex righted the ship with some high-quality replies and showed us all how it's done. But alas that is the exception. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

qubex 9y ago

That’s where I have to disagree... as most mathematicians I tend towards the idea that mathematical structures are discovered (even though techniques might be invented). There’s clearly an underlying pattern to physics, and the two main theories have to be reconciled somehow since the Universe hangs together pretty coherently; it’s just as obvious (to me, at least) that they’re mapping something with these procedures and that what they’re finding is not a side-effect of the procedure that gets randomly instantiated by the algorithm.

empath75 9y ago

Why should 'theory space' throw red flags? If you have a set of 'theories' with some structure attached to it, you have a 'theory space'.

thanatropism 9y ago
Usually the structure in "space" is topological, i.e. some concept of a "neighborhood".
- Steuard 9y ago
  And indeed there is a concept of "neighborhood" here: a set of parameters characterizing the conformal field theory in question.

reacweb 9y ago

My personal red flag is the lack of formula or theorem. For me a beautiful formula is often more enlightening than a lengthy explanation. Fancy names occur in very serious mathematical articles.

qubex 9y ago
There’s plenty of underlying mathematics and formulae (albeit being conjectures, probably not many overarching theorems for these specific theories yet). However I expect they decided against printing anything ’mathematical’, probably because the notation would be so dense with additional meanings it would be likewise indistinguishable from gibberish (for the layman, at least).

dang 9y ago

Please don't post snarky, shallow dismissals to HN. That's just what we're hoping to avoid here. Fortunately qubex righted the ship with some high-quality replies and showed us all how it's done. But alas that is the exception. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html