Re: Bob Berman: String Theory's trendy, but baseless

Richard Miller wrote:
"meltedown" <groups2@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:qZmPe.145266$uo4.64570@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

String Theory's trendy, but baseless
From The Woodstock Times, Thursday, August 18 
http://ulsterpublishing.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&articleID=350699

Night Sky

Hanging by a thread
String Theory's trendy, but baseless

by Bob Berman
Science has long tried to come up with a Grand Unified Theory. It's a wonderful concept: a way to tie together all the universe's forces. Einstein struggled unsuccessfully with this most of his life, and he wasn't alone. But, listening to the PBS NOVA special or reading some 


etc.

Not a great fan myself. BUT I am a great fan of mathematical elegance. Hamiltonian theory of dynamical systems is probably a very good start. It is argued purely on mathematical/transformation grounds. And it is brilliant. The real trouble is the hype. It doesn't help that seemingly respectable scientists espouse that a TOE is only a few years away. But whether it is string theory or something else, I think you should allow mathematical elegance. Personally, I think the mathematics is the correct theory and the manifestation of the mathematics is what we call physical reality. If you allow both physics and maths, you have two theories. Why should the physical world follow maths? Ditch physics, stick with maths and you only have one theory to explain and no approximate models. Are not probabilistic forces the same as physical forces? If it is a constraint in maths, it is a physical constraint that we feel or measure.

Denk mal daruber!

Richard Miller


Thanks. I'm not sure I follow, but you seem to be saying that our ability to gather evidence to support a theory is limited by our material resources to a much greater degree than our ability to do the math, so it should not be surprising that some math based theories will end up being unsupported by the evidence, even if they are totally correct.
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