September 27, 2006
THE PERFECT EXPRESSION OF RATIONALISM...:
Moving Beyond String Theory (Mark Anderson, Sep, 26, 2006, Wired)
This fall, Columbia University mathematician Peter Woit has published a critique of string theory (Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory), pointing out that in more than three decades, string theory still has yet to make a single prediction that can be verified in the lab or through the lens of a telescope. If all scientific disciplines maintained such fluffy and forgiving standards, Woit argues, science would devolve into little more than medieval disputations about angels and heads of pins. [...]Oxford University mathematical physicist Roger Penrose, author of The Road to Reality, invented a mathematical tool called "twisters."
Smolin and Penrose take a look at the diverging paths beyond string theory.
Twistor String Theory. This retooling of string theory uses Penrose's twistors, which reduce the number of dimensions in the theory to the familiar four -- three spatial dimensions plus time. Twistors are by definition four-dimensional objects that locate not a position in space and time but rather a network of possible causal relationships between space-time events. Depicting a particle such as an electron as occupying a definite x, y, z and t gives a false sense of definiteness: Space and time are fuzzy at quantum scales. But cause and effect are not, and cause and effect are effectively what twistor space maps.
"What's rather striking about this twistor string approach is that it really is four dimensions," said Penrose just after a conference on twistor string theory. "So my objections (about string theory's extra hidden dimensions) essentially evaporate."
Pros: The mathematical beauty of string theory remains mostly unassailed, while the universe gets its four dimensions. Actual predictions for future particle accelerator experiments may yet emerge.
Cons: It's still unclear what this "theory" is...
...the math works perfectly and means nothing.
Uh, it's a surprise when mathematics applies to the physical world, not when it doesn't.
Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at September 27, 2006 9:36 AMIf all scientific disciplines maintained such fluffy and forgiving standards, Woit argues, science would devolve into...
Psychology? Linguistics? Marxism? "Queer Studies"? Journalism?
Posted by: Raoul Ortega at September 27, 2006 11:17 AM...Darwinism, Physics, Environmentalism...
Posted by: oj at September 27, 2006 12:51 PMIf I have 1 banana and a monkey steals 3 bananas from me... then I must have -2 bananas, cuz the math says so. Somehow I doubt the universe cares what mathmaticians think.
Posted by: lebeaux at September 27, 2006 4:34 PM