Why String Theory failed | Peter Woit and Lex Fridman

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GUEST BIO:
Peter Woit is a theoretical physicist, mathematician, critic of string theory, and author of the popular science blog Not Even Wrong.

PODCAST INFO:

SOCIAL:

[thekanthalkid]

Eric said the same thing. He admited there are many people working on interesting ideas under the label of "String Theory", but no one from the larger community wants to admit the foundational ideas failed.

[hahtos]

String theory and supersymmetry really swallowed the careers of many brilliant physicist.

[cybervigilante]

I knew a quantum physicist about two decades ago and he said string theory was bunk. He was into knots although now I think he'd be into graph theory. One thing he mentioned is the universe exists in "patches." I wishd I'd followed him up on that becuase for some reason it rings a bell.

[thomasgarlinghouse]

I remember in the 1990s when String Theory was initially touted, I was pretty excited. I thought, maybe now we can have a viable GUT! However, by the time I finished Brian Greene's popular book, I thought to myself -- this seems to be the antithesis of Occam's Razor. This theory hasn't simplified anything; on the contrary, it has taken a subject and made it even more convoluted. And here we are today...

[JoeTaber]

Really he's arguing that these new ideas that came out of string theory need their own new identity and name. Sure you can describe its lineage like "string theory inspired bob's theory which inspired susan's theory witch inspired my theory which is..." But to call everything 'string theory' and lacking clear distinctions means that the name is being overused.

[lawrencegoldworm]

Two very intelligent people discussing a very interesting topic with not a sign of a pulse or heartbeat between them.

[PunmasterSTP]

As someone who has almost the dimmest idea of what string theory is and was, I found this video rather insightful. Thanks for making and uploading it!

[mykolas]

I've said this on other forums and videos before, I read dozens of books on string theory, and I knew LESS about it afterwards. It just seemed like it was so silly, but the math worked, so they wouldn't stop adding dimensions lol

[drmikebass]

The reason I thought it would never work is because it's top-down: it asserts space-time dimensions rather than producing them. This is precisely what stops QM from merging with GR - it presupposes a (flat) space-time.

What is needed is some kind of quantum theory that works backward in that sense, whereby the space-time we observe, at least macroscopically, is the *result* of quantum interactions, not the playing field on which they occur.

[redsky]

There is always the possibility that a research project will produce a negative result. But although it is personally very disappointing it is not wasted effort because as long as it is concluded with a published paper others will not pursue the idea any further and can concentrate on something else.

[qigong]

It’s been 40 years with this? Not a single falsifiable test? Tried to listen to Brian’s Greene’s defense of strings, but he didn’t have much to say except “it’s still new, patience, interesting math, part of the process, maybe someday, it’s evolving…bla bla blaaa.”

[jonhutto]

Science advances 1 funeral at a time...
People who spent a lifes work, or even a decade of work, are unwilling to let go when it is proven wrong.

[briankirksey]

My first exposure to string theory was on cable tv, shows like discovery channel and history. I never liked the idea about it but have no understanding of physics so had no basis to argue it.... Weird my instincts were right. When some of the physicist talked about it, they seemed more like believers talking about their chosen faith. Like... You gotta believe..it's faith kinda thing.

[Sithdestroyer]

String theory: A field of physics that adds as many dimensions it wants so that the math works out. News flash math doesn't equal physics.

[theodoretheodoropoulos]

25 years ago, I spent a year doing research and studying String Theory and super symmetry. Figured out then that it was a waste of time and it will lead to know where. So I changed my my research to Electromagnetic Theory

[johnnyfelcher]

Nobody wants to spend their whole life studying something just to admit it was pointless. That's what I think it comes down to.

[marounaboujaoudeh]

It's never late to stop working on a failed project. Easy to say, difficult to do.

[blengi]

Lex needs to organize a show down between Woit and Motl, in a Calabi-Yau shaped cage match where they trade 6 dimensional wedgies between arguments until one or the other concedes their position on string theory for the sake of budding physicist children around the world, who are so catatonically confused about the state of physics, they're all thinking of becoming youtube shills for the latest NFT craze....

[Hugging_Cactus]

‘there’s so much good stuff coming of this direction, it must be the right direction’
-lost husband refusing his wife’s road map

[thomasspeer]

What did they expect trying to make gravity a particle. It was already shown to be emergent in GR