5 ms·

Sabine was already skeptical in February [0]. Although to be fair, she usually is :) But in this field, I think it is warranted. [0]: https://backreaction.blog

• eqvinox 1y ago
  Sabine Hossenfelder has grown a little… controversial… lately. You should probably do some googling (or YouTube searching, in this case.) It's not entirely clear to me what's going on but some of her videos do raise serious question marks.
  • matkoniecz 1y ago
    can you be more specific what you are alleging? and little controversy is not automatically a problem or reason to discount/ignore someone anyway
    • immibis 1y ago
      She has a tendency to be wrong on things outside her domain of expertise. It's the classic being an expert in one field and thinking you're an expert in all of them.
      • dimal 1y ago
        Please give specific examples. I keep seeing vague comments like this about her, but very little in the way of specifics. Without specifics, this is just ad hominem rumor mongering.
        • krastanov 1y ago
          Extreme specifics: her comments on work out of MIT on Color Center Qubits was basically "finally an example of actual progress in quantum computing because of reason A, B, C". That statement was in the class of "not even wrong" -- it was just complete non sequitur. People actually in the fields she comments on frequently laugh at her uninformed nonsense. In this particular case, the people that did the study she praised were also among the ones laughing at her.
          • eviks 1y ago
            This is still extreme vague without A,B,C and an explanation why there is no connection, i.e., specifics re why she was wrong. Just more vague reference to other people's reactions
            • krastanov 1y ago
              She said "because the color centers are small which would enable miniaturization". Miniaturization is the last thing these are good for, and while they are "small" for a human, they are gigantic for an electronic device. She had absolutely no idea why these new devices are useful but made sweeping comments about how they will change the field. She hyped up something silly while at the same time she complains about hype over actually interesting results. She betrayed complete incompetence on the topic while pretending to be an expert. And she does that constantly, over such trivialities, that it is just exhausting to argue about it.
              • eviks 1y ago
                So it's not "because of reason A, B, C", but just "A", and "small which would enable miniaturization" is also not "non sequitur", let alone "complete". By the way, the "B" was the ability to "target individual qubits more easily". In what way is this "complete non sequitur" And you also "forgot" to specify "why these new devices are useful" so that we can't check whether she even mentioned it to asses whether she has no idea (is it interconnectedness of the modular systems ("C"), single-step ease of transfer on the CMOS, compatibility with modern semiconductor fab processes, remote control, something else entirely?) > while pretending to be an expert Where was that? Could you link to her statement pretending to be an expert on quantum computing? > that it is just exhausting to argue about it. Indeed, it's much easier be very vague in your arguments, because then you can't verify any claims and don't have to respond to when such verification fails to match
    • HideousKojima 1y ago
      There was an email she claimed to have received many years ago from another academic essentially saying "you're right that a lot of academic research is BS and just a jobs program for academics, but you shouldn't point that out because it's threatening a lot of people's livelihood." Some people are claiming she fabricated this alleged email etc., I haven't looked too much into it myself.
      • hinkley 1y ago
        I end up playing father confessor often enough at work that I have had to launder things people have complained about. When you are trying to make the right calls for a team, you need to know what the pushback is, but the bullies and masochists on the team don’t need to know who specifically brought forward a complaint as long as the leadership accept it as a valid concern. So if everyone knows I had a private meeting with Mike yesterday it’s going to be pretty fucking obvious that I got this from Mike unless I fib a bit about the details. Saying a conversation during a visit happened in email sounds like about the sort of thing I might lie about while not making up the conversation from whole cloth. Not that Sabine is perfect. I’ve let the YouTube algorithm know I want to see less of her stuff. But just because there is no email doesn’t mean there was no conversation.
    • eqvinox 1y ago
      No, I'm intentionally not taking a position or alleging anything. I'm pointing out the existence of some controversy. It's up to you to decide whether you want to look into it, and if yes, what sources to prefer.
  • antidumbass 1y ago
    I've found great success in ignoring, entirely, baseless aspersions cast by faceless anon avatars about people in the public eye.
    • unaindz 1y ago
      Good for you, I, on the other side, like when people raise those concerns so I can check for myself if I need to change my views in any way
• dsabanin 1y ago
  Is there something she is not skeptical of or controversial about?
  • hinkley 1y ago
    I don’t know if she has changed or I have changed but I don’t enjoy her stuff anymore. Maybe I should watch some of her old stuff and figure that out.
    • teekert 1y ago
      I’m starting to feel the same indeed.
  • nlitened 1y ago
    Einstein equations
    • dsabanin 1y ago
      Hm, that may be controversial in itself, depending on where you stand in the current cosmology.
  • andrepd 1y ago
    It's her whole schtick: being contrarian. Maybe she had a point about the excesses of string theory but she's been full-on into crackpot territory for a while now, sadly.
  • phire 1y ago
    There was one video where she said she believed time travel was "probably possible"
• chermi 1y ago
  A broken clock....