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#stringtheory

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”I think that the debacle with string theory is, in many ways, the result of this sort of attempt to subjugate everything to what you already know. And then discard all other ideas and say that they are not serious, their ideas are propagated by amateurs, and stuff like that. Instead of looking in the mirror and kind of understanding what am I doing here and on what ground am I to claim that the theory I'm working on is “the only game in town”, which was an expression used by many string theorists for a long time.”
—Edward Frenkel
https://youtu.be/RX1tZv_Nv4Y?t=2287
#stringtheory #physics
Replied in thread

@tg9541 OK, I have read Stuart Kauffman’s book “At Home in the Universe”, and am familiar with the concept of ‘emergence’, as well as the philosophical conflict concerning #reductionism. But I am also skeptical of #math substituting for #science - as in #StringTheory.

To get to the point of this limited toot, I recall from long ago the discovery (by radiolabeling) that “biological structures are replaced every 8 weeks”, but more recent experiments refuted its generality.

youtu.be/dqi6YWV7Ck4?si=qnfzN7

This Model Explains WHY Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle Happens (part 2)

I've always been skeptical about string theory (other than that cats seem to be intrigued 😋) until I saw this video. It made me rethink my disbelief, so I'm still keeping an open mind.

Continued thread

...let me let you in on a little secret. Most of of these folks claiming #StringTheory has failed (if they're actual physicists) have no idea what string theory even IS. They're not going to look at the tensor transformations that get you into that space.They're not going to do the work informing topological transfers or the function spaces required for the same reasons most westerners don't square the circle and learn #Cantonese. It's very challenging and mostly not required for survival

We keep seeing these critiques regarding #StringTheory based mostly on degeneracy issues that resolve when sensible bounds are applied. Since the SM also had to be renormalizable before making sense and it doesn't tell us why constants are what they are similar challenges for string theory being "devastating flaws" are a real headscratcher. The technniques of string theory represent a toolbox that keeps showing up in other applications because they are useful...

Continued thread
'The original promise was to describe the physics of this universe, unify all forces of nature... This has not happened. And now we hear this actually is not such a big deal. ... Imagine Moses after 40 years of wandering in the desert, you would say,...this idea of a promised land is not such a big thing. Look how much we've learned about the desert. We've learned so much about the sand. Who cares about the promised land? What do you think people would say to him? And yet here we are." --Edward Frenkel #physics #stringtheory
"I was recently invited to a string theory conference. And it was a very interesting experience for me... I saw that it’s not a very healthy kind of situation. ... The fact...is that the original promise of string theory, which was to describe this universe ... has not worked out. And nobody knows how, in principle, it could work. ... Yet, this is not acknowledged. And how can you move forward ... if you're not acknowledging that your original program failed?" https://youtu.be/n_oPMcvHbAc?t=9716 #edwardfrenkel #physics #stringtheory
…I have worked on…string theory… …I wrote eighteen papers in the subject… I will speak of conjectures that were widely believed to be true, in spite of never having been proved. …I was among the believers…
—Lee Smolin, The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next #book #physics #stringtheory