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.

[BDParrish]

Laptop problems.

[PeterPrinciple]

If you can’t test something, it’s not science, it’s philosophy, or worse.

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Philosophy has application. It is not one or the other.

For example logic, part of philosophy, is a rare commodity these days.

We have too many experiments that logic says won’t work but we have to go through the experiments anyway these days. Einstein did many thought experiments before he came up with his final ideas. Not done today because the wilder you idea is these days, the more attention you get, whether science, economics; religion or politics.

We have people that still believe in spontaneous generation. We laugh at the idea of spontaneous generation but seriously support the current idea which adds time and randomness.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Ah, that makes sense.