Why String Theory Is Both A Dream And A Nightmare

Forbes ^ | February 26, 2020 | Ethan Siegel

[C19fan]

String theory is perhaps the most controversial big idea in all of science today. On the one hand, it's a mathematically compelling framework that offers the potential to unify the Standard Model with General Relativity, providing a quantum description of gravity and providing deep insights into how we conceive of the entire Universe. On the other hand, its predictions are all over the map, untestable in practice, and require an enormous set of assumptions that are unsupported by an iota of scientific evidence.

For perhaps the last 35 years, string theory has been the dominant idea in theoretical particle physics, with more scientific papers arising from it than any other idea. And yet it has not produced even one testable prediction in all that time, leading many to decry that it hasn't even risen to the standard of science. String theory is simultaneously one of the best ideas in the entire history of theoretical physics and one of our greatest disappointments. Here's why.

[C19fan]

A lot of String Theorists have gone to the extreme of saying no experimental evidence is needed to verify their theory. The theory must be correct because it is mathematically "beautiful" whatever that means. That argument sound like something from theology or philosophy not a science. String theory might end up as one of the greatest achievements of science or one of the greatest wastes of mental capacity in history as some of the greatest minds have spent now over three decades on this .

[thoughtomator]

String theory is a mathematical fraud engaged in for funding purposes only.

Any basic application of scientific method would discard it out of hand for its inability to produce a testable hypothesis.

[A Navy Vet]

Poor Sheldon. He found string theory a dead end.

[HangnJudge]

If a hypothesis cannot be tested, it is not Science

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

String theory is perhaps the most controversial big idea in all of science today.

For my money, dark matter/energy takes that distinction.

[olepap]

There is one theory that explains everything: we are living in a simulation

[sasquatch]

Answer in search of a problem.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Just because the math is valid doesn’t mean it applies to anything in the physical universe. Until and unless string theory can ever move to the experimental phase, it’s a great exercise in mathematics.

[BDParrish]

Patience Oh faithful ones! We merely stand at the mouth of the cave of the oracle, and when the priests decide, they will come out and tell us what we must believe.

[thoughtomator]

a simulation of what

[Getready]

As in row row row your boat...gently down the stream...merrily, merilly, merilly, merilly...life is but a dream?
Is it possible that there are limits to our acquisition of knowledge? Is the idea that we are living in a simulation actually a non traditional religious belief?

[HangnJudge]

At least Einstein’s General Relativity was testable....

[BDParrish]

Found this article almost impossible to load. It hangs up my laptop with all the ads and scripts, but what I could read is that they have decided to be honest about how the observations did NOT match the predictions.

...and when you look at the explicit predictions that have come out for the masses of the mesons that have been already discovered, by using lattice techniques, they differ from observations by amounts that would be a dealbreaker for any other theory.

(emphasis mine)

[BipolarBob]

My cat is a great fan of the string theory. He fantasizes about it.

[BenLurkin]

ping

[BipolarBob]

Is the idea that we are living in a simulation actually a non traditional religious belief?

I'm not sure if it is a religious/non-religious belief but I know I have heard more than one reputable scientist posit we are possibly living in a computer simulation. Did God devise this to see if we are grown up enough to live in the real world?

[olepap]

a simulation of what
Exactly. Or who is running the simulation?

[olepap]

Is it possible that there are limits to our acquisition of knowledge? Is the idea that we are living in a simulation actually a non traditional religious belief?
When we get too close to discovering how the simulation works, everything dissolves into quantum wierdness. Is God the source of the simulation?

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

String theory is a crock. There’s a ton of leading physicists who will tell you that it’s gone off the deep end.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Yep, dark matter was concocted because the scientists can’t admit that they don’t know everything about gravity yet.