Philip Anderson (“More is different!”) in the New York times today on “What do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it?”<\/p>\n
\nIs string theory a futile exercise as physics, as I believe it to be? It is an interesting mathematical specialty and has produced and will produce mathematics useful in other contexts, but it seems no more vital as mathematics than other areas of very abstract or specialized math, and doesn’t on that basis justify the incredible amount of effort expended on it.
\nMy belief is based on the fact that string theory is the first science in hundres of years to be pursued in pre-Baconian fashion, without any adequate experimental guidance. It proposes that Nature is the way we would like it to be rather than the way we see it to be: and it is improbable that Nature thinks the same way we do.
\nThe sad thing is that, as several young would-be theorists have explained to me, it is so highly developed that it is a full-time job just to keep up with it. That means that other avenues are not being explored by the bright, imaginative young people, and that alternative career paths are blocked.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Philip Anderson (“More is different!”) in the New York times today on “What do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it?” Is string theory a futile exercise as physics, as I believe it to be? It is an interesting mathematical specialty and has produced and will produce mathematics useful in other contexts, … <\/p>\n
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