Posted on 11/19/2006 7:38:10 PM PST by SunkenCiv
The essential claim of string theory is that what we perceive as electrons, photons and other sub-atomic particles are actually tiny one-dimensional snippets of energy vibrating furiously in 11 dimensions. The theory seemed, at first, to offer a promising path forward toward the goal of seamlessly melding relativity and quantum mechanics because it overcame mathematical problems that had dogged earlier efforts at reconciliation. Sadly, reality has turned out to be at odds with the dreams of string theorists. For starters, there seems to be no possible way to test string theory experimentally... More ominously, out of the deep mathematical recesses of the theory has emerged something called "the landscape," which is essentially a collection of alternate theoretical universes, most of which bear no resemblance to the one we inhabit. Far from predicting uniquely the seemingly arbitrary parameters and constants of physics we observe in our cosmos, the landscape of string theory offers -- like Alice's restaurant -- just about any cosmos you could possibly want. This should alert us, Woit warns, that string theory is not really science but a field of pure speculation resembling metaphysics and theology.
(Excerpt) Read more at oregonlive.com ...
Thanks for the posts on String Theory. They are fascinating.
It's turtles all the way down, son.
L
He's a good writer, now if only he'd come out his shell...
My pleasure.
String Theory, once advanced with considerable sincerity, has fallen on hard times. Because, by it's very nature, it cannot be confirmed by experiment, it has become the fodder of the all too prevelent science hucksters, probably the same ones who are laughing up their sleeves as they pocket taxpayer grant money for studies on global warming. :)
At the lowest resolution there is Newtonian physics and the math is manageable, sometimes elegant. With better resolution, tensors and other Relativity math, the math gets less comprehensible but still has some workability. With the occult math structures in use now the peaks revolve into uplands with more features, but the math is almost incomprehensible and looks bad, too. As the resolution increases, the math gets more ugly.
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