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I thought Brian Greene did a great job interviewing Edward Witten (Fields Medal winner) on the World Science Festival Youtube channel [1]. I also just really e

• Levitating 10mo ago
  You might not like Angela Collier's video on string theory[1]. [1]: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kya_LXa_y1E https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kya_LXa_y1E
  • mkw5053 10mo ago
    Interesting, thanks for sharing! I definitely don't walk away from any of Brian Greene's content thinking that String Theory is anything close to a confirmed fact at all. It's been some times since I read his earlier books, possibly his tone has changed? I'll also say, I'm far from a professional physicist. I'm reading and watching for fun and intellectual curiosity, not to learn physics with the goal of doing my own research. I always thought of String Theory as being more of a study of math where many people have unsuccessfully tried to apply it to physics. And, that it's lead to some really interesting ideas. I just find him and his work really enjoyable.
    • Levitating 10mo ago
      > It's been some times since I read his earlier books, possibly his tone has changed? I think her point is more that his tone hasn't changed. If you're curious I would just watch the video. Angela comes with the perspective of also having read his earlier books and having liked them.
  • michaelcampbell 10mo ago
    Thanks for posting that; as soon as I saw the title here I was going to look that up if no one else had already. Sabine Hossenfelder too, though there's far too much content from her on this to put a list, but anyone interested might like some of her takes. A few debates between Brian and other notables; Hossenfelder, Eric Weinstein, and Roger Penrose to name a few; have popped up in my youtube feed lately which are typically also engaging.
    • UncleMeat 10mo ago
      Hossenfelder is not really comparable to Collier. Collier's video is critical of string theory as a testable framework but she ultimately still supports people who do research in string theory. Most of her criticism is with media coverage of string theory, not the research or the researchers. Hossenfelder has gone off the "the physics establishment is all idiots and they are suppressing the real physics" deep end and has converted specific complaints into trashing the entire field.
      • tejohnso 10mo ago
        I thought her rant about bullshit papers was pretty convincing and poignant.
        • 20k 10mo ago
          The problem with sabine is that she's become the worst person to make a correct point for the wrong reasons If you do research it becomes pretty apparent that a high number papers are not great. There's varying issues, but a big one is that the funding model incentivises pumping out papers which are often of low quality, researching whatever happens to be in vogue at the moment Literally everyone I've ever talked to in research as a frank conversation knows that this is a massive problem, but nobody wants to talk about it publicly. Research funding is already completely screwed as it is, and researchers are incredibly aware of how fragile their livelihoods are Its clearly leading to a big reduction in the quality of the literature. I went on a replication spree recently and found that a pretty decent chunk of the field I was working in was completely unreplicable by me, with a few papers that I strongly suspect 'massaged' their results for various reasons I wish someone would talk about this who wasn't also in bed with right wing grifters, and was actually credible. We need someone more like ben goldacre for physics Sabine's most interesting content is the paper reviews, and where she sticks to actually examining the evidence - but it makes up a tiny fraction of what she produces these days, and her support for some truly grim figures is just gross
          • BurningFrog 10mo ago
  • niccl 10mo ago
    _totally_ off topic, but what sort of brain must Ms Collier have that she can play a game at the same time as giving a cogent lecture on String Theory with very few hesitations? I could hardly concentrate on the lecture because of the game being shown in an inset window. Truly impressive
    • IAmBroom 10mo ago
      Yesss! I had an ex complain/advise that, if I could just stop thinking for a moment, I'd enjoy life more. In my mind, that's what Ms. Collier is doing: distracting her hyperresponsive brain parts so she can present a longer speech on the topic.
• dang 10mo ago
  The OP is about that video, though one wouldn't know it from a web page that won't download. I've put an archive.org link in the toptext now.