Surfer dude stuns physicists with theory of everything

Telegraph ^ | 11-14-07 | roger highfield

[Maynerd]

Not only has this guy possibly figured out the universe, but he has invented a new language, because I didn’t understand a damn thing any of those people were talking about in that article.

LOL

Surfer slang is a mere stepping stone to mastering the lingo and thought of quantum physics bro.

[Maynerd]

This is BS. You don’t find the answer to the universe in some obscure mathematical pastime.

Actually that's where all the action is in physics currently. String Theory is math first and shoehorning the physics to fit the math second.

[Straight Vermonter]

Lisi's breakthrough came when he noticed that some of the equations describing E8's structure matched his own. "My brain exploded with the implications and the beauty of the thing," he tells New Scientist. "I thought: 'Holy crap, that's it!'"

This reminds me of how Andrew Wiles solved Fermat's enigma (aⁿ+bⁿ=cⁿ where n is not = to 2). He noticed that the work being done on modular forms and elliptic equations was similar to his own work on Fermat.

[damondonion]

Huh? That is exactly where Einstein found an awful lot of it...

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Albert Einstein was basing relativity on "thought experiments" rather than anything resembling real research, real experiments, or real evidence, and thought experiments are not a terribly good basis for physics. There are some glaring problems with relativity, not least being the fact that gravity propagates instantaneously to within our ability to measure.

[damondonion]

In other words, if reality doesn’t fit the theory, declare reality to be flawed....

[piytar]

Granted, yoy put it well. However, some of the best insights cancome to you during times of self actualization. One such time is when you meditate, another is when you do something physical that you know so well that you don’t have to think about it. One characteristic is losing track of time. Your brain actually goes into a different state with different brain wave patterns. This is also the rush that skilled skiers, snowboarders, surfers, and other athletes often experience when doing their thing in a noncompetitive setting. In other words, it makes sense that a phd surfer dude could gain such insights...

[piytar]

Actually, there is some new work showing that gravity MAY not be instantaneous, but MUST be faster than light. That said, an awful lot of what Einstein came up with via his thought experiments has been proven. He certainly didn’t solve everything, but he certainly solved an awful lot. Or are you seriously disputing that?!

[piytar]

“Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Albert Einstein was basing relativity on “thought experiments” rather than anything resembling real research, real experiments, or real evidence...”

You mean he was just thinking about it? You just made my point!

[RightWhale]

This thread is in a parallel universe. The real thread is in the original universe. Or, maybe this is the real universe and the other is . . .

[newguy357]

thought experiments are not a terribly good basis for physics

That's not true. Thought experiments are often what theoretical physics is. That's how Newton got his universal law of gravitation, Einstein his theory of relativity (which predicted the equivalence of mass and energy decades before it was experimentally verified and the gravitational bending of light years before it was verified), and Feynman his theory of quantum electrodynamics (or at least, the first part of it).

[Eastbound]

Wait! I’ll ask my cat. ‘Here, Kitty Kat!’ (mmmmm....strange...It’s gone! I coulda swore I saw it slurping up some milk just a millisecond ago. I had my eyes right on her. Prolly slipped off into its box for a nap. I’ll ask it later.

[Scythian]

He discovered it alright ... I used it to open up a wormhole and traveled to 2009, Hillary was President and there were some strange buttons on the free-republic, you had to queue up, as one post had to be from a liberal, then one from a conservative, it’s was quite awkward?

[robertpaulsen]

"The first thing I thought of when I saw the colorful diagram was a fractal"

The first thing I thought of was the image from a kaleidoscope. I could have claimed rights 40 years ago!

[Aliska]

There ya go! Pretty one-dimensional if you ask me :-).

That figure shown in the discovery appears bounded to me, no matter how many dimensions are in it. I think space would have to be infinite which is just about an impossible concept to grasp.

If I were younger, I would try to figure out how that could be, but I just don't have the mind for it. I can plug values into E=mc^2, but no way could I come up with a formula like that in the first place. I never really undestood the theory of relativity either, grappled with it some years ago, but can't even remember what it is about now.

PS. I like your kaleidoscope image. Those things always fascinated me.

[airborne]

"Lisi's inspiration lies in the most elegant and intricate shape known to mathematics, called E8 - a complex, eight-dimensional mathematical pattern with 248 points first found in 1887, but only fully understood by mathematicians this year after workings, that, if written out in tiny print, would cover an area the size of Manhattan."

[cajungirl]

You have a somewhat narrow view of what kind of mental job this man might be doing. He is thinking and may be doing the work of a mental giant. He is no moron and the universe may well be better for his thoughts.

Broaden your perspective a bit.