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I think her perspective is quite a bit more productive than just capitalizing on distaste. For example, in this discussion she's making concrete criticisms of

I think her perspective is quite a bit more productive than just capitalizing on distaste. For example, in this discussion she's making concrete criticisms of specific communications patterns. I don't think it's too strong to call it "disinformation" out of the journals. They claimed that the next big toy will prove or disprove supersymmetry. They never acknowledged that their claim had been incorrect, or that it was misleading. Calling out that repeated pattern is, I think, on the respectful side of the public gadfly playbook. I think she wants to "improve the field" by incenting theoretical advances that actually lead to testable predictions. Unfortunately, that transition will put a lot of e.g. string theorists out of work.

SiempreViernes 4y ago
Not really, in the sense that Hossenfelder only advocated for subtracting resources from particle physics, never about what should be funded instead.
- robonerd 4y ago
  > never about what should be funded instead. This isn't entirely true. In this blog post (http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2019/04/does-world-need-larger-particle.html http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2019/04/does-world-need-lar...) she recommends: > "One of the key motivations for building a larger particle collider that particle physicists like to bring up is that we still do not know what dark matter is made of. But we are not even sure that dark matter is made of particles. And if it’s a particle, we do not know what mass it has or how it interacts. If it’s a light particle, you would not look for it with a bigger collider. So really it makes more sense to collect more information about the astrophysical situation first. That means concretely better telescopes, better sky coverage, better redshift resolution, better frequency coverage, and so on." Though she goes on to say > "But really my intention here is not to advocate a particular alternative. I merely think that physicists should have an honest debate about the evident lack of progress in the foundations of physics and what to do about it."
  - SiempreViernes 4y ago
    > better telescopes, better sky coverage, better redshift resolution, better frequency coverage And all of this is being built currently or already exists (ELT, ASSN, Vera Rubin, SKA, CTA), so it's not clear what she's advocating.
    - robonerd 4y ago
      Presumably "more of that." Would cosmologists really turn away even more funding? I can't imagine so.
      - SiempreViernes 4y ago
        It's not like there are a lot of idling cosmologist for lack of instruments right now, you'd really need to expand the set of tenured positions within the field if you'd want anyone to actually use a second Vera Rubin. So "more of that" isn't a very useful position, science output isn't a linear, or even monotonous function of dollars spent.

SiempreViernes 4y ago

Not really, in the sense that Hossenfelder only advocated for subtracting resources from particle physics, never about what should be funded instead.

robonerd 4y ago
> never about what should be funded instead. This isn't entirely true. In this blog post (http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2019/04/does-world-need-larger-particle.html http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2019/04/does-world-need-lar...) she recommends: > "One of the key motivations for building a larger particle collider that particle physicists like to bring up is that we still do not know what dark matter is made of. But we are not even sure that dark matter is made of particles. And if it’s a particle, we do not know what mass it has or how it interacts. If it’s a light particle, you would not look for it with a bigger collider. So really it makes more sense to collect more information about the astrophysical situation first. That means concretely better telescopes, better sky coverage, better redshift resolution, better frequency coverage, and so on." Though she goes on to say > "But really my intention here is not to advocate a particular alternative. I merely think that physicists should have an honest debate about the evident lack of progress in the foundations of physics and what to do about it."
- SiempreViernes 4y ago
  > better telescopes, better sky coverage, better redshift resolution, better frequency coverage And all of this is being built currently or already exists (ELT, ASSN, Vera Rubin, SKA, CTA), so it's not clear what she's advocating.
  - robonerd 4y ago
    Presumably "more of that." Would cosmologists really turn away even more funding? I can't imagine so.
    - SiempreViernes 4y ago
      It's not like there are a lot of idling cosmologist for lack of instruments right now, you'd really need to expand the set of tenured positions within the field if you'd want anyone to actually use a second Vera Rubin. So "more of that" isn't a very useful position, science output isn't a linear, or even monotonous function of dollars spent.