Cosmologic philosophy: multiverse/string theory die! (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, June 27, 2016, 14:52 (2853 days ago) @ David Turell

Peter Woit reviews the current conferences to come, flying off in many directions, more indefinite than ever: - http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=8604 - "One can read the blog comments mentioned to get some idea of the arguments going on about “phenomenology” vs. “mathematics”. The “phenomenologists” argue that they are the ones doing physics and engaging with data, but don't really point out that the models they work with have no known (i.e. not purely speculative) connection to any known physical phenomenon. They're hopeful someday things will be different, but there's no evidence at all of any progress in that direction. - *** - "Phenomenologists like Conlon do battle with their Strings 20XX brethren by accusing them of doing “mathematics”, not “physics”, of in essence really being just an offshoot of the String-Math 20XX crowd. There's an implicit argument that such people don't deserve jobs in a physics department, but should move to a math department. I can report though, that while much of the String-Math 20XX research is more than welcome in the math community, that's not true of most of what goes on at Strings 20XX (a conference that very few mathematicians ever attend). - "If you find the current situation confusing, rest assured that you're not the only one…" - Comment: If strings are your thing, there are jobs available, going nowhere.