There are so many huge things to know about in physics ... so many gaping lacunae, I can't accept this. Sure nobody's thinking about them, instead preferring to

There are so many huge things to know about in physics ... so many gaping lacunae, I can't accept this. Sure nobody's thinking about them, instead preferring to fool around with non falsifiable piffle like noodle theory and "quantum information theory:" that's part of the problem. Similarly in technology, there is much to do, but tinkering with hardware, craftsmanship; the things that worked in industrial labs in the old days: they're not done any more. Even making some simple piece of junk aluminum part, people waste time fooling around with solid designer and FEA instead of just handing a piece of graph paper to a former Navy machinist. There are entire books written in the post WW-2 era about fast development when people actually used to develop things quickly. Nobody does it. Well, the Russians and Chinese do, but they also develop big technology a lot faster than we do in the west. I have no idea what's wrong with machine learning research; probably gratuitous abuse of grad students, people jumping after fashion, and lately brain drain.