European Tribune - Comments - String Theory Under Attack!

String Theory Under Attack! | 64 comments (64 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: String Theory Under Attack! (none / 0)

I call current theoretical high-energy physics metatheoretical physics. I also used to make the joke that I chose to get a Ph.D. in mathematics and not physics so I didn't have to feel embarrassed by my subject matter.

guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sun Jun 25th, 2006 at 07:40:57 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: String Theory Under Attack! (none / 0)

Mathematics as a refuge from physics? Considering the internal difficulties with mathematics, that doesn't seem like such a great refuge...

by asdf on Sun Jun 25th, 2006 at 07:21:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: String Theory Under Attack! (none / 0)

What internal difficulties do you mean?

guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Jun 26th, 2006 at 02:20:49 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: String Theory Under Attack! (none / 0)

2 + 2 = 5

Believe me.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Mon Jun 26th, 2006 at 07:06:31 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: String Theory Under Attack! (none / 0)

Sure, under suitable a definition of '='.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Mon Jun 26th, 2006 at 07:38:43 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: String Theory Under Attack! (none / 0)

And a suitable definition of '+'. And of '2' and '5'.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Mon Jun 26th, 2006 at 07:40:19 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: String Theory Under Attack! (4.00 / 2)

And of "believe" and of "me".

guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Jun 26th, 2006 at 07:41:34 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: String Theory Under Attack! (none / 1)

Then I'm glad we agree.

(under a suitable definition of "agree").

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Mon Jun 26th, 2006 at 07:48:45 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: String Theory Under Attack! (none / 0)

And of "definition".

guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Jun 26th, 2006 at 07:55:53 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: String Theory Under Attack! (none / 0)

...in the recursive general case.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Mon Jun 26th, 2006 at 11:33:19 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: String Theory Under Attack! (none / 0)

You mean the one that goes

if(FALSE) then agree

?

guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Jun 26th, 2006 at 11:34:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: String Theory Under Attack! (none / 0)

Close.

I think the Uncertainty Principle should really be named the Indecisiveness Principle.

It's not that the Universe is random, it's more that it can't actually make up its mind about anything definite unless you stand over and force it to. (Boolean values included.)

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Mon Jun 26th, 2006 at 01:18:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]

I know a lot of people who are like (none / 0)

the universe. It is really hard to get them to make up their minds!

The Fates are kind.

by Gaianne on Tue Jun 27th, 2006 at 01:44:32 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: I know a lot of people who are like (none / 0)

No we're creating the Universe to our image?

guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Jun 27th, 2006 at 03:05:48 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: I know a lot of people who are like (none / 1)

It's a reasonable explanation for why String Theory doesn't work.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Tue Jun 27th, 2006 at 06:30:50 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: String Theory Under Attack! (none / 0)

Well, for example, the hoops you have to jump through to make set theory internally consistent...

by asdf on Mon Jun 26th, 2006 at 08:37:11 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: String Theory Under Attack! (none / 0)

It cannot be proven to be internally consistent, AFAIK.

guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Jun 26th, 2006 at 08:53:49 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: String Theory Under Attack! (none / 0)

If you worry about that, just adopt some flavour of constructivism or other, and get on with your work. As a user of applied mathematics, every theorem you'll ever use will still be true, with a little more work.

guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Jun 26th, 2006 at 09:00:26 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: String Theory Under Attack! (none / 0)

Doesn't it bother you just a bit that the formal foundation for big chunks of mathematics gets wrapped around the axle so easily?

by asdf on Mon Jun 26th, 2006 at 10:12:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: String Theory Under Attack! (none / 0)

No, I think the formalists (Hilbert and his coterie) were a little extreme.

guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Jun 27th, 2006 at 03:06:43 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: String Theory Under Attack! (none / 0)

They were also proved wrong by Gödel.

guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Jun 27th, 2006 at 03:19:31 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: String Theory Under Attack! (none / 0)

Are you a platonist?

guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Jun 27th, 2006 at 03:19:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: String Theory Under Attack! (none / 0)

Not sure I want to be pigeonholed philosophy-wise. It just seems weird that mathematics does, on the one hand, do an amazing job of providing tools that can be applied to physics (and the other practical arts) and give arbitrarily accurate results, but then at the same time it can get so completely fouled up itself when you try to do rigorous analysis...

by asdf on Tue Jun 27th, 2006 at 11:33:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]

String Theory Under Attack! | 64 comments (64 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

. Home
. About
. Contact
. New User Guide
. FAQ
. ET Editorial Guidelines
. Search
. Search (Google)

Username:
Password:

. Make a new account
. Reset password

Recommended Diaries

Recent Diaries

Socratic Economics XII: Utopian Government Finance
by Zwackus - May 25
115 comments

A Star is Born
by ChrisCook - May 23
23 comments

$1,000,000,000,00
0 or what we must remember
by Metatone - May 19
69 comments

The balance of anger and fear
by Frank Schnittger - May 17
44 comments

Stable pricing is to metaphysics as variable pricing is to...
by Upstate NY - May 16
8 comments

A little American intercine battling
by rootless2 - May 14
27 comments

Another NRW election
by DoDo - May 13
118 comments

Bundesrat saves PV (and loses Röttgen)
by DoDo - May 12
18 comments

The mainstream German Magazine Spiegel asks, has the US mixed ...
by Democrats Ramshield - May 10
27 comments

Short Term Climate Forces: Black Carbon, Methane, and...
by gmoke - May 9

Twenty days of Crisis for Cameron
by ceebs - May 9
22 comments

SYRIZA and the Eurocrats: a letter of intent
by talos - May 9
363 comments

French Parliamentary Elections: a look under the hood
by Bernard - May 8
59 comments

Sunday Train: The Rock Island Line is a Mighty Fine Iowa...
by BruceMcF - May 6
18 comments

Greece election day II - Election diary and info
by talos - May 6
129 comments

Greece: Election day I - some background
by talos - May 6

Why haven't we had WWIII yet?
by Migeru - Apr 30
258 comments

More Diaries...

Occasional Series

Click for full list