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Look up and see a recent essay by the head of the Princeton Institute of Advanced Study where, for my rough summary from rough memory, he explained that physics
by graycat 8y ago
Look up and see a recent essay by the head of the Princeton Institute of Advanced Study where, for my rough summary from rough memory, he explained that physics can have lots of models that all fit all the data the same. So, it can be tough to find the one correct model, the one book of physics, the one way the universe runs, etc.
Then see a recent essay at Quanta Magazine that explains that physics has long looked to some largely esthetic concerns especially about symmetry to pick and choose among alternate theoretical explanations -- again my rough summary from my rough memory.
- fovc 8y agoI found an essay by the head of the IAS, published in Quanta Magazine. Could the two essays be one and the same? https://www.quantamagazine.org/there-are-no-laws-of-physics-theres-only-the-landscape-20180604/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/there-are-no-laws-of-physics-...
- graycat 8y agoThe article on beauty, e.g., symmetry, as a way to select candidate theories in physics I read was Sabine Hossenfelder, Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray at https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/sabine-hossenfelder/lost-in-math/9780465094264/ https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/sabine-hossenfelder/lost-i... and is an excerpt from her book of the same name. I was led to that excerpt by page https://www.quantamagazine.org/authors/sabine-hossenfelder/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/authors/sabine-hossenfelder/ from page Sabine Hossenfelder, "The End of Theoretical Physics As We Know It", August 27, 2018. at https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-end-of-theoretical-physics-as-we-know-it-20180827/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-end-of-theoretical-physic...