7 ms·

Eric Weinstein: How Not to Formulate a Theory of Everything

23 points by privatdozent 5y ago

GDC7 5y ago
Weinstein did good to not only formulate but to publish. At some point you got to throw caution into the bin and publish what you have to say. This person mentioned Einstein, but Einstein was just the byproduct of a time when people had the balls to publish what could be perceived as extravagant theories. Einstein was the one who got it right, but you don't get to hear from him if you don't create an environment in which people like him also felt the confidence to publish stuff that could be considered controversial. People say necessity is the mother of invention, well right after that there's the feeling of being the only one who gets it and that all the others are wrong/clueless. Competitive arrogance is right there at no.2
- jrpear 5y ago
  > This person mentioned Einstein, but Einstein was just the byproduct of a time when people had the balls to publish what could be perceived as extravagant theories. As an outsider, while I can see many problems in academia today, I'm not sure that an exceptional fear to publish extravagant theories is one of them. It seems to me that the opposite is true. The replication crisis is a symptom of a general unfriendliness towards uninteresting publications.
  - loceng 5y ago
    It's tough to gauge if someone's competent or not when they're speaking at a very high level in a domain you know nothing much about, and where very high level is at least an order of magnitude more difficult than high level. For this I've found myself leaking in corollaries such as Eric being able to have old time theoretical physicists on his podcast and having in-depth and flowing conversations with them.
    - gowld 5y ago
      Yes, he knows basic physics. but none of his sketches of novel theory has been substantiated by anyone.
      - nbardy 5y ago
        And they won’t be for a while. That’s why he’s working on it still.
- gowld 5y ago
  Einstein had a few important but easy to state ideas about the speed of light and gravity, that he analyzed at length with non-controverial comprehensible (to experts) math, and made a bunch of predictions that many scientists verified. The quantum menchics theory was much more controversial, and Einstein opposed it.
holonomically 5y ago
Weinstein is either going senile or running a very advanced grifting operation to increase his clout on social media. He presumably did some advanced work in the past but that is no indicator of sanity. Sir Michael Atiyah towards the end of his life developed obvious cognitive deficiencies. [1] 1: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/2009/07/15/michael-atiyah/ https://www.simonsfoundation.org/2009/07/15/michael-atiyah/
- Jackpillar 5y ago
  He's a grifter through and through.
- nescioquid 5y ago
  I've watched several hours of conversation with Eric Weinstein. He talked at length about the academic cabal to keep him out of the "in group". I imagine Weinstein will repay Nguyen's efforts by attacking him as a monster from the old cabal. I think I know what you mean about the "grift"; I've wondered if Eric wasn't hurt by his little brother having more notoriety. Given Nguyen's remarks on Eric's reluctance to actually produce a paper (despite talking up the idea in popular venues) and his indecision about whether Eric is an academic or an entertainer probably belies a similar suspicion. Of course, if the paper were solid, we probably wouldn't be wondering about this at all (assuming, of course, that Nguyen isn't a nasty monster from the cabal).
  - holonomically 5y ago
    I don't know much about his work but I know he sometimes makes remarks that are paranoid, contradictory, and nonsensical when properly analyzed. This indicates to me that he either knows that such remarks drive a lot of engagement on social media or he doesn't. Either way, I think people should stop paying attention to whatever he's saying since it is often neither insightful nor productive in any meaningful way.
    - loceng 5y ago
      Do you have a link/timestamp to a video with such a reaction? I've seen him get frustrated or bored and then challenge people to try to think harder or differently, more deeply. "Either way, I think people should stop paying attention to whatever he's saying since it is often neither insightful nor productive in any meaningful way." Should we do the same with you? How ridiculous.
huitzitziltzin 5y ago
This guy has been discussed somewhat by economists recently. Background: His claim is that all of our CPI calculations are wrong bc we should be using gauge theory rather than differential calculus to understand consumer utility. He got invited to the University of Chicago to give a talk about this theory. (This is one of the world’s top three or four economics departments.) While I was not personally there, I have read reports about what happened. He was repeatedly asked by people in the room to provide a simple example of a case where his theory would do better than current methods for calculating CPI: suppose there are two goods and two periods of time, e.g. Show us how we get it wrong and you get it right (and why) He did not do this. It seemed (according to reports from the room) that he was unable to do so. It seems (being charitable) like the guy has a habit of making dramatic claims like “I have solved X and everyone currently working on it has it wrong!” and then not being able (not remotely able!) to back it up.
- ianai 5y ago
  I'd be more charitable toward him - he's got a list of things to deliver upon if he wants his theories taken more seriously. It's a philosophy of science level thing to want a new theory that replaces other theories to improve on their understanding in some area by explaining phenomena the previous theory(ies) does not explain or providing the same understanding with fewer data needed.
  - loceng 5y ago
    He's not trying to replace theories, he believes he's created the underlying theory that allows other theories like relativity and string theory be able to be connected, which currently aren't.
  - privatdozent 5y ago
    Nobody finds it strange that he doesn't write these theories down?
- xadhominemx 5y ago
  > It seems (being charitable) like the guy has a habit of making dramatic claims like “I have solved X and everyone currently working on it has it wrong!” and then not being able (not remotely able!) to back it up. He’s a libertarian so it kinda comes with the territory
DemocracyFTW 5y ago
As the One Source of Truth puts it: This guy is "an American podcast host and a managing director of Thiel Capital" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Weinstein https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Weinstein). For one thing this matches more or less one of the author's own disclaimers under one of his papers (quoted by https://www.cantorsparadise.com https://www.cantorsparadise.com, link of OP), for another his affiliation is highly problematic to put it mildly.

23 points by privatdozent 5y ago

GDC7 5y ago

Weinstein did good to not only formulate but to publish. At some point you got to throw caution into the bin and publish what you have to say. This person mentioned Einstein, but Einstein was just the byproduct of a time when people had the balls to publish what could be perceived as extravagant theories. Einstein was the one who got it right, but you don't get to hear from him if you don't create an environment in which people like him also felt the confidence to publish stuff that could be considered controversial. People say necessity is the mother of invention, well right after that there's the feeling of being the only one who gets it and that all the others are wrong/clueless. Competitive arrogance is right there at no.2

jrpear 5y ago
> This person mentioned Einstein, but Einstein was just the byproduct of a time when people had the balls to publish what could be perceived as extravagant theories. As an outsider, while I can see many problems in academia today, I'm not sure that an exceptional fear to publish extravagant theories is one of them. It seems to me that the opposite is true. The replication crisis is a symptom of a general unfriendliness towards uninteresting publications.
- loceng 5y ago
  It's tough to gauge if someone's competent or not when they're speaking at a very high level in a domain you know nothing much about, and where very high level is at least an order of magnitude more difficult than high level. For this I've found myself leaking in corollaries such as Eric being able to have old time theoretical physicists on his podcast and having in-depth and flowing conversations with them.
  - gowld 5y ago
    Yes, he knows basic physics. but none of his sketches of novel theory has been substantiated by anyone.
    - nbardy 5y ago
      And they won’t be for a while. That’s why he’s working on it still.
gowld 5y ago
Einstein had a few important but easy to state ideas about the speed of light and gravity, that he analyzed at length with non-controverial comprehensible (to experts) math, and made a bunch of predictions that many scientists verified. The quantum menchics theory was much more controversial, and Einstein opposed it.

holonomically 5y ago

Weinstein is either going senile or running a very advanced grifting operation to increase his clout on social media. He presumably did some advanced work in the past but that is no indicator of sanity. Sir Michael Atiyah towards the end of his life developed obvious cognitive deficiencies. [1] 1: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/2009/07/15/michael-atiyah/ https://www.simonsfoundation.org/2009/07/15/michael-atiyah/

Jackpillar 5y ago
He's a grifter through and through.
nescioquid 5y ago
I've watched several hours of conversation with Eric Weinstein. He talked at length about the academic cabal to keep him out of the "in group". I imagine Weinstein will repay Nguyen's efforts by attacking him as a monster from the old cabal. I think I know what you mean about the "grift"; I've wondered if Eric wasn't hurt by his little brother having more notoriety. Given Nguyen's remarks on Eric's reluctance to actually produce a paper (despite talking up the idea in popular venues) and his indecision about whether Eric is an academic or an entertainer probably belies a similar suspicion. Of course, if the paper were solid, we probably wouldn't be wondering about this at all (assuming, of course, that Nguyen isn't a nasty monster from the cabal).
- holonomically 5y ago
  I don't know much about his work but I know he sometimes makes remarks that are paranoid, contradictory, and nonsensical when properly analyzed. This indicates to me that he either knows that such remarks drive a lot of engagement on social media or he doesn't. Either way, I think people should stop paying attention to whatever he's saying since it is often neither insightful nor productive in any meaningful way.
  - loceng 5y ago
    Do you have a link/timestamp to a video with such a reaction? I've seen him get frustrated or bored and then challenge people to try to think harder or differently, more deeply. "Either way, I think people should stop paying attention to whatever he's saying since it is often neither insightful nor productive in any meaningful way." Should we do the same with you? How ridiculous.

huitzitziltzin 5y ago

This guy has been discussed somewhat by economists recently. Background: His claim is that all of our CPI calculations are wrong bc we should be using gauge theory rather than differential calculus to understand consumer utility. He got invited to the University of Chicago to give a talk about this theory. (This is one of the world’s top three or four economics departments.) While I was not personally there, I have read reports about what happened. He was repeatedly asked by people in the room to provide a simple example of a case where his theory would do better than current methods for calculating CPI: suppose there are two goods and two periods of time, e.g. Show us how we get it wrong and you get it right (and why) He did not do this. It seemed (according to reports from the room) that he was unable to do so. It seems (being charitable) like the guy has a habit of making dramatic claims like “I have solved X and everyone currently working on it has it wrong!” and then not being able (not remotely able!) to back it up.

ianai 5y ago
I'd be more charitable toward him - he's got a list of things to deliver upon if he wants his theories taken more seriously. It's a philosophy of science level thing to want a new theory that replaces other theories to improve on their understanding in some area by explaining phenomena the previous theory(ies) does not explain or providing the same understanding with fewer data needed.
- loceng 5y ago
  He's not trying to replace theories, he believes he's created the underlying theory that allows other theories like relativity and string theory be able to be connected, which currently aren't.
- privatdozent 5y ago
  Nobody finds it strange that he doesn't write these theories down?
xadhominemx 5y ago
> It seems (being charitable) like the guy has a habit of making dramatic claims like “I have solved X and everyone currently working on it has it wrong!” and then not being able (not remotely able!) to back it up. He’s a libertarian so it kinda comes with the territory

DemocracyFTW 5y ago

As the One Source of Truth puts it: This guy is "an American podcast host and a managing director of Thiel Capital" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Weinstein https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Weinstein). For one thing this matches more or less one of the author's own disclaimers under one of his papers (quoted by https://www.cantorsparadise.com https://www.cantorsparadise.com, link of OP), for another his affiliation is highly problematic to put it mildly.