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This just falls completely apart when you look at the history of physics. Einstein for example is usually considered to be one of the smarter people, and even h

This just falls completely apart when you look at the history of physics. Einstein for example is usually considered to be one of the smarter people, and even he thought it would be impossible to ever measure gravitational waves directly. He simply could not foresee the future developments of quantum mechanics, like lasers or squeezed light states. And yet here we are. Even if the author was the best physicist in the world (and if you look at her papers she certainly isn't by a long shot), you should never trust any statement like that. This is not just detrimental to science outreach (these things capture young people's imagination after all), it's also pointless to argue about them when we know that we almost certainly just lack imagination ourselves. Noone alive today can tell what will be possible in 100 years, period.

twiss 4y ago
Sure, but that's an example of measuring something that's happening now. It's not quite in the same category as measuring something that happened 13.7 billion years ago.
- sigmoid10 4y ago
  Well, first of all these gravitational wave-creating events happened billions of light years away and thus are already a way to view the universe billions of years ago. Going back and looking even further into the past is just an example of what seems impossible to us right now. But in the grand scheme of things, we have no clue what's possible as evidenced by the history of physics. On top of that, there are actually pathways towards understanding things like string theory or the big bang. Einstein by comparison was not disingenuous when he made that statement, since the theoretical and experimental work didn't even show a possible path to imagine the future. Of course that doesn't mean that these other things will pan out in the future (e.g. stuff like astronomically-sized colliders or mathematical bottom-up/top-down proof approaches), but saying that anything we do today definitely won't ever work out, no matter what, is either incredibly naive, misinformed or outright slanderous towards these areas of research.
tsimionescu 4y ago
I hate this way of thinking. Einstein never thought that it's impossible to measure gravitational waves, he just couldn't imagine any way we could ever make instruments precise enough to do so. However, measuring the state of the singularity that probably existed before inflation, or even more so, measuring anything about how that in itself came to be, is explicitly impossible given our current theories. As impossible as building a space ship that travels faster than light, or measuring the precise position and velocity of a particle. These are not technological issues: finding a way to do them would mean a completely new paradigm in science. So any paper that attempts to prove these things without presenting a new paradigm is doomed to the "we will never know" bag.
- sigmoid10 4y ago
  You're falling into the exact argument trap you laid out yourself. Einstein had no clue what would be possible just 100 years later and just because we have no clue how to ever measure a singularity (which is actually not completely true, but let's not get into that) it would be very presumptuous of us to say that it will remain impossible another 100 years into the future. Just imagine if people kept listening to the guys who kept saying all the stuff we do today is impossible. Science is incremental steps - and we have to follow them disregarding of how worthwhile they might seem right now. Very rarely will someone come along and enable something directly that was thought impossible just recently. But over the long run, things work differently. Sure, we'll reach a lot of dead ends along the way while pursuing great things, but on the other hand we don't get anywhere at all by only listening to people who can't imagine anything.

twiss 4y ago

Sure, but that's an example of measuring something that's happening now. It's not quite in the same category as measuring something that happened 13.7 billion years ago.

sigmoid10 4y ago
Well, first of all these gravitational wave-creating events happened billions of light years away and thus are already a way to view the universe billions of years ago. Going back and looking even further into the past is just an example of what seems impossible to us right now. But in the grand scheme of things, we have no clue what's possible as evidenced by the history of physics. On top of that, there are actually pathways towards understanding things like string theory or the big bang. Einstein by comparison was not disingenuous when he made that statement, since the theoretical and experimental work didn't even show a possible path to imagine the future. Of course that doesn't mean that these other things will pan out in the future (e.g. stuff like astronomically-sized colliders or mathematical bottom-up/top-down proof approaches), but saying that anything we do today definitely won't ever work out, no matter what, is either incredibly naive, misinformed or outright slanderous towards these areas of research.

tsimionescu 4y ago

I hate this way of thinking. Einstein never thought that it's impossible to measure gravitational waves, he just couldn't imagine any way we could ever make instruments precise enough to do so. However, measuring the state of the singularity that probably existed before inflation, or even more so, measuring anything about how that in itself came to be, is explicitly impossible given our current theories. As impossible as building a space ship that travels faster than light, or measuring the precise position and velocity of a particle. These are not technological issues: finding a way to do them would mean a completely new paradigm in science. So any paper that attempts to prove these things without presenting a new paradigm is doomed to the "we will never know" bag.

sigmoid10 4y ago
You're falling into the exact argument trap you laid out yourself. Einstein had no clue what would be possible just 100 years later and just because we have no clue how to ever measure a singularity (which is actually not completely true, but let's not get into that) it would be very presumptuous of us to say that it will remain impossible another 100 years into the future. Just imagine if people kept listening to the guys who kept saying all the stuff we do today is impossible. Science is incremental steps - and we have to follow them disregarding of how worthwhile they might seem right now. Very rarely will someone come along and enable something directly that was thought impossible just recently. But over the long run, things work differently. Sure, we'll reach a lot of dead ends along the way while pursuing great things, but on the other hand we don't get anywhere at all by only listening to people who can't imagine anything.