3 ms·

This line of talk is way overplayed. Like people who have an enthusiast amount of knowledge follow a few people who have professional knowledge who are just un

This line of talk is way overplayed. Like people who have an enthusiast amount of knowledge follow a few people who have professional knowledge who are just unreasonably fixated on what other physicists pursue. Doubt and questioning are a part of science but this "religion" meme about string theory et al is silly. If you're really upset that somebody is pursuing something is a blind alley, go ahead and do some physics that shows results, otherwise I really wish people would tone the unhelpful criticisms down.

senttoschool 3y ago
I agree. If every physicist quit string theory because we haven’t thought of a way to test it, like what @ravenstein might want, then that would be a sad day. I don’t see the problem with physicists working on or even promoting string theory.
- kagakuninja 3y ago
  I am not a physicist, but what I have read from critics (badly paraphrased): During the hype phase of string theory, every major university wanted to get in on the game, and devoted large amounts of funding towards hiring researchers with a background in string theory. If you weren't one of those people, you were at a severe disadvantage, and might not get hired at all. String theory hovered up tons of cash in university budgets, and majorly fucked over a lot of careers. The result of all this money has been no actual scientifically proven results despite decades of research.
  - senttoschool 3y ago
    If there was a more promising theory to investigate in, we would have done that, right? Even today, we don't really have anything much better than string theory.
  - consilient 3y ago
    > devoted large amounts of funding towards hiring researchers with a background in string theory. If you weren't one of those people, you were at a severe disadvantage, and might not get hired at all. > String theory hovered up tons of cash in university budgets, and majorly fucked over a lot of careers. This is pretty misleading. An argument could be made - though I'm not necessarily endorsing it - that string theory has crowded out other quantum gravity research programs in the last few decades. But quantum gravity is a small and poorly funded subfield: we're talking about no more than a few hundred people total in the US, fighting over one medium-sized experiment worth of grant money. None of it makes any difference to the overwhelming majority of physicists.
- ravenstine 3y ago
  No one is saying that string theory shouldn't be investigated.
  - senttoschool 3y ago
    Apologies. It was unclear what your desired goal from your original post.

senttoschool 3y ago

I agree. If every physicist quit string theory because we haven’t thought of a way to test it, like what @ravenstein might want, then that would be a sad day. I don’t see the problem with physicists working on or even promoting string theory.

kagakuninja 3y ago
I am not a physicist, but what I have read from critics (badly paraphrased): During the hype phase of string theory, every major university wanted to get in on the game, and devoted large amounts of funding towards hiring researchers with a background in string theory. If you weren't one of those people, you were at a severe disadvantage, and might not get hired at all. String theory hovered up tons of cash in university budgets, and majorly fucked over a lot of careers. The result of all this money has been no actual scientifically proven results despite decades of research.
- senttoschool 3y ago
  If there was a more promising theory to investigate in, we would have done that, right? Even today, we don't really have anything much better than string theory.
- consilient 3y ago
  > devoted large amounts of funding towards hiring researchers with a background in string theory. If you weren't one of those people, you were at a severe disadvantage, and might not get hired at all. > String theory hovered up tons of cash in university budgets, and majorly fucked over a lot of careers. This is pretty misleading. An argument could be made - though I'm not necessarily endorsing it - that string theory has crowded out other quantum gravity research programs in the last few decades. But quantum gravity is a small and poorly funded subfield: we're talking about no more than a few hundred people total in the US, fighting over one medium-sized experiment worth of grant money. None of it makes any difference to the overwhelming majority of physicists.
ravenstine 3y ago
No one is saying that string theory shouldn't be investigated.
- senttoschool 3y ago
  Apologies. It was unclear what your desired goal from your original post.