Sabine Hossenfelder on Physics and Beauty | The Big Idea

Sabine Hossenfelder discusses the unexpected dangers of viewing physics as inherently beautiful.

Welcome to The Big Idea: the ideas that matter, made simple. Regular bite-sized videos on Philosophy, Science, Culture and Arts from the IAI’s most renowned thinkers. This week we examine how the widespread metaphysical assumption of physics as beautiful has in fact prevented progress within the discipline for the past 40 years.

#SabineHossenfelder #Physics #Beauty

Sabine Hossenfelder is a research fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, author of Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray and regular contributor to Forbes and the popular physics blog Backreaction.

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[kmg]

So the two basic take away's is that it is about making busy work to maintain an industry and/or that they ran out of solutions and are flailing about for a solution (while collecting a check).

[Thomas-gk]

Two years old, current as never before! SH is a clear, brave and honest thinker.

[SandipChitale]

I think this talk is meant for the general public. In that context, the meaning of the word "beauty" is very different than the context in which scientists originally started using the word to talk about their theories in their own circle. The underlying meaning of the way that word was used was understood in those circles. IMO what was meant by that word was things like:

- generality i.e. no special cases unless justified
- not overturning established science unless a very good reason can be provided. For example, even though Einstein's theory taught us to think of gravity in a very different way (curvature of spacetime), it still did not overthrow Newton's theory of gravity. I think any new whacko theories that are proposed every day, scientists are justified to be highly skeptical when those theories try to completely overturn established science. Of course, I am not saying that such a theory that overturns our well-established scientific theories should never be accepted, but we should demand a lot more backing for such a theory.
- consistency
- symmetry when applicable

All of these were mentioned by Sabine as her recommendations but IMO those are more or less already implied in the scientific use of the word beauty. So to some extent, this is too much ado about nothing.

[leandrosilvagoncalves]

At least there's beauty in the way this video was made! One with Donald Hoffman would also be beautiful!

[scenemuch]

Discovery is an adventure, not a pre packaged tour.

[jamesruscheinski]

How to move forward in physics?What is the basis for hypothesizing in physics to conduct experiments?

[JuliusUnique]

is there an example 2:50 for this? Because I can't think of one. LHC makes sense, fermilab makes sense, Super-Kamiokande makes sense, which test-facility did we build because we wished the physics to be more pretty and ended up wasting money? Not saying we didn't, in fact I have no idea, but I would like to get some examples of where this has happened

[KaliFissure]

Neutron decay cosmology explains both the anti/matter imbalance and dark matter and energy. Not beauty. First principles. Accepting the evident even if it seems contrary to our usual interpretation

[georgesos]

Is it abt beauty though, or is it about simplicity?..

[BartvandenDonk]

It is like the indigo problem. There must be 7 colors even when there are only 6.

[adielkamalie]

And so the conclusion I exactly what it s about, that rationaliy can measure the material and visible but metaphysics and beliefs perceive the beauty and that the soul or spirit that animates the matter uses the senses via the brain .
Beauty is subjective and its connecting and consciousness of the Divine One Creator that allows all else to make sense.

[anniew]

Beauty is emergent, the only way it is objective, which it is. You will not construct. You will transmit

[johnnisshansen]

Well...clumsyness is not preferred for elegance, Occams razor is constant at work.
Nontheless beauty is in the eyes of the beholder and the math spoken from the physics cathedrals
are like the latin spoken in churches centuries ago.

[badhombre]

She's conflating confirmation bias with beauty.

[KaliFissure]

Outer best recent learning has been in constrained domain physics. Topological and conformational manipulation of space

[robertfontaine]

This is a story Sabine has told many times before. There is no sign that ugly is better either. Have lodged the complaint it would seem more useful to provide some new insight into discovering new physics.