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The Universe as We Understand It May Be Impossible
The Atlantic ^ | Natalie Wolchover and Quanta Magazine

Posted on 10/27/2022 1:59:46 PM PDT by nickcarraway

A new conjecture in physics challenges the leading “theory of everything.”

On June 25, Timm Wrase awoke in Vienna and groggily scrolled through an online repository of newly posted physics papers. One title startled him into full consciousness.

The paper, by the prominent string theorist Cumrun Vafa of Harvard and his collaborators, conjectured a simple formula dictating which kinds of universes are allowed to exist and which are forbidden, according to string theory. The leading candidate for a “theory of everything” weaving the force of gravity together with quantum physics, string theory defines all matter and forces as vibrations of tiny strands of energy. The theory permits some 10500 different solutions: a vast, varied “landscape” of possible universes.* String theorists like Wrase and Vafa have strived for years to place our particular universe somewhere in this landscape of possibilities.

But now, Vafa and his colleagues were conjecturing that in the string landscape, universes like ours—or what ours is thought to be like—don’t exist. If the conjecture is correct, Wrase and other string theorists immediately realized, the cosmos must either be profoundly different than previously supposed or string theory must be wrong.

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: astronomy; cumrunvafa; fauxiantroll; fauxiantrolls; mtheory; physics; quantummechanics; science; stringtheory; youngearthdelusion; youngearthdelusions
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To: nickcarraway

10^500 not 10500


21 posted on 10/27/2022 2:25:45 PM PDT by Chad_the_Impaler
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To: nickcarraway

Many scientists are intelligent. Wise? Not so much.


22 posted on 10/27/2022 2:27:33 PM PDT by robel
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To: nickcarraway
Maybe our entire existence is merely a fleeting thought in God's mind.

Put some math on that!

23 posted on 10/27/2022 2:27:34 PM PDT by 1FreeAmerican
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To: nickcarraway
The conjecture, if true, would mean the density of dark energy in our universe cannot be constant, but must instead take a form called “quintessence”—an energy source that will gradually diminish over tens of billions of years.

O tempora, o mores!...Say it ain't so...Futility, entropy is thy name. Here comes the Big Crunch; I lift my weary eyes to CERN.

24 posted on 10/27/2022 2:28:46 PM PDT by PerConPat (A politician is an animal which can sit on a fence and yet keep both ears to the ground. - Mencken)
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To: nickcarraway

THE SCIENCE IS SETTLED!!!


25 posted on 10/27/2022 2:29:33 PM PDT by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes.)
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To: nickcarraway

realized, the cosmos must either be profoundly different than previously supposed or string theory must be wrong.


Right on both counts.


26 posted on 10/27/2022 2:36:15 PM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: seowulf

Really really smart theorists have “proven” there is no such thing as free will and others say we live in a computer simulation (I like that theory the best).


27 posted on 10/27/2022 2:37:08 PM PDT by BipolarBob (I was born into this world with nothing . . and I still have most of it .)
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To: nickcarraway; All

Maybe its time to leave String Theory to cats. Re-sharpen our pencils and start over.


28 posted on 10/27/2022 2:40:38 PM PDT by Reily
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To: nickcarraway

“...which are forbidden, according to string theory”

Well, “string theory” is not science, so neither is this.


29 posted on 10/27/2022 2:40:40 PM PDT by Boogieman
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To: RoosterRedux

They dont like doing that.

Academical dogmatic inertia.

They don’t like entire careers that turn out to be wrong.


30 posted on 10/27/2022 2:40:52 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: seowulf

“Not locally real” and “not real” are not interchangeable terms.


31 posted on 10/27/2022 2:41:57 PM PDT by Boogieman
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To: PerConPat
Squeeze - In Quintessence
32 posted on 10/27/2022 2:44:29 PM PDT by Boogieman
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To: nickcarraway

If I had known that this article was about a ball of twine, I would not have read it...

When you talk about “string theorists” you can visualize a Biden-Fetterman collaboration...


33 posted on 10/27/2022 2:46:34 PM PDT by SuperLuminal (Where is the next Sam Adams when we so desperatly need him)
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To: nickcarraway

Well, it isn’t the first time a scientific explanation will be tossed out.


34 posted on 10/27/2022 2:48:27 PM PDT by Beowulf9
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To: RoosterRedux

Prof. Jeffrey Kripal calls it the “cats in the library” problem.

The cats will never understand the books in the library—but both cats and the library are real.

P.S. Neither the cats nor the library are “good” or “evil”.

;-)


35 posted on 10/27/2022 2:50:13 PM PDT by cgbg (Claiming that laws and regs that limit “hate speech” stop freedom of speech is “hate speech”.)
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To: nickcarraway

See? SEE???

(see tagline...)


36 posted on 10/27/2022 2:54:43 PM PDT by null and void (← Not delusional, just differently realitied...)
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To: Organic Panic

My brain is sprained…😵‍💫


37 posted on 10/27/2022 2:58:38 PM PDT by telescope115 (Proud member of the ANTIFAuci movement. )
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To: nickcarraway

I don’t think Deut. 29:29 is intended to gnostic.Here the full quote:

Deuteronomy 29:29
English Standard Version
29 “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.


38 posted on 10/27/2022 3:01:18 PM PDT by ckilmer (q)
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To: dfwgator

You are a fluke of the universe.
You have no right to be here.
And whether you can hear it or not,
The universe is laughing behind your back.
.......
yeah something like that is written at the library at yale.

Good book out about that called “Is Atheism dead? by eric metaxas. he was a yale guy.


39 posted on 10/27/2022 3:04:36 PM PDT by ckilmer (q)
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To: nickcarraway

Them that is, ain't, and vice-versa.

(Here's some background music for this thread.)

"She's Not There" - The Zombies

(And, for help in understanding string theory..."Good Ol' Mountain Dew" - Stringbean.)

40 posted on 10/27/2022 3:08:15 PM PDT by Songcraft
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