How Physics Lost Its Fizz: Physics is now just recycling once-exciting ideas

blogs.scientificamerican.com ^ | January 18, 2016 | John Horgan

[Trumpinator]

How Physics Lost Its Fizz

Physics, which decades ago seemed capable of answering the deepest mysteries of existence, is now just recycling once-exciting ideas

By John Horgan on January 18, 2016

For a lapsed Catholic like me, physics represented a kind of scientific theology, an empirical, rational way of probing the mysteries of existence. Physicists were discerning resonances between the smallest and largest scales of reality and spinning out astonishing conjectures about our universe and even other universes.

...snip...

Physicists' fantasies about parallel and virtual realms are not just stale. Increasingly, they strike me as escapist and even irresponsible, because they are so lacking in evidence. Scientists shouldn't have to serve the public good any more than poets or musicians. But if theories are being passed off as science, shouldn’t they have at least a remote chance of being empirically corroborated? Otherwise, how do they differ from pseudoscientific ideas like intelligent design?

...snip...

Things have gotten so bad that physicists are openly fretting about the future of their field. In a recent TED Talk, “Have we reached the end of physics?”, Harry Cliff states that “for the first time in the history of science, we could be facing questions that we cannot answer, not because we don't have the brains or technology, but because the laws of physics themselves forbid it.”

[Trumpinator]

I have been exploring the heretical electric universe theory lately. It's the only model that the macro universe can be reproduced on the micro scale - or something.

http://www.electricuniverse.info/Introduction

[GraceG]

We need more mad crazy scientists doing all sorts of crazy things... Science has become too much of a dogma...

[Trumpinator]

Laboratory science

Plasmas are strongly influenced by electro-magnetic forces. A laboratory simulation of two interacting electric "Birkeland" currents, models many characteristics of galaxy formation. The Electric Universe is based on the known properties of plasmas, in preference to unproven theoretical physics, and consequently does not require black holes, dark matter and dark energy, neutron stars and the Big Bang.

[I want the USA back]

Two non-scientific wacko ideas:
1. Alternate universes. An infinity of them.
2. The Universe popping in and out of existence.
Anyone who proposes them is no longer a scientist.

[rightwingcrazy]

I remember reading such talk about the field of Optics a few decades ago. With the explosion of technology for fiberoptic communications, electro-optic materials, etc., that talk has vanished.

[redgolum]

for later.

[Yo-Yo]

"That's why I left String Theory."

[fishtank]

perverted tv show

[Trumpinator]

There is more evidence of an intelligently designed universe than one populated by infinite alternate realities.

[subterfuge]

Perverted? At least you’re fully aware of it.

[Mechanicos]

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn7915-most-scientific-papers-are-probably-wrong/#.UwyvVM5lock

http://yournewswire.com/nearly-all-scientific-papers-controlled-by-same-six-corporations/

http://www.businessinsider.com/why-most-published-scientific-research-is-wrong-2013-10?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+businessinsider+%28Business+Insider%29

http://www.nwcreation.net/evolutionfraud.html

Lysenkoism: describes the manipulation or distortion of the scientific process as a way to reach a predetermined conclusion as dictated by an ideological bias, often related to social or political objectives.

[Pontiac]

Physicists' fantasies about parallel and virtual realms are not just stale. Increasingly, they strike me as escapist and even irresponsible, because they are so lacking in evidence. Scientists shouldn't have to serve the public good any more than poets or musicians.

I would agree with that if they were spending their own money or the money of a private benefactor. But most of them are spending public funds, so called federal grants. Such funds should be doled out sparingly to projects that promise real dividends in real time (DARPA).

Pie in the sky research should be funded privately. Too much of government funded research has become politicized and needs to be defunded.

[Talisker]

Two non-scientific wacko ideas:
1. Alternate universes. An infinity of them.
2. The Universe popping in and out of existence.
Anyone who proposes them is no longer a scientist.

LOL, you've never recovered from that double-split experiment, and now you want to silence those who acknowledge it.

Collectivism is fueled by strange sources.

[Pontiac]

But if theories are being passed off as science, shouldn’t they have at least a remote chance of being empirically corroborated? Otherwise, how do they differ from pseudoscientific ideas like intelligent design?

AT least intelligent design is privately funded. If it is a waste at least it is wasted money voluntarily given and not money taken from individuals by force.

[Trumpinator]

There is a theory out there that has some reproducible results in the lab that shows the universe operates like a virtual simulation. That sounds very much like intelligent design to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_yPsGCbKaY

[IronJack]

Instead, physics has devolved into an cerebral circle jerk expounding ridiculous ideas like string theory, alternate universes, time travel, and dark matter. A bunch of Steven Hawking-induced claptrap designed to force reality to conform to some obscure equation, instead of the equation reflecting the reality.

Oh, for the days of Einstein again ...

[Trumpinator]

People are starting to think about modern physics: “there is no there there”.

[pieceofthepuzzle]

You doubt that some of us are living in alternative realities?

[MUDDOG]

questions that we cannot answer... because the laws of physics themselves forbid it.

They fought the law and the law won.

[Trumpinator]

Note to self - I am pleasantly surprised this posting is getting some good comments. All politics is boring all the time.