Lost in Math

A contrarian argues that modern physicists obsession with beauty has given us wonderful math but bad science Whether pondering black holes or predicting discoveries at CERN, physicists believe the best theories are beautiful, natural, and elegant, and this standard separates popular theories from disposable ones This is why, Sabine Hossenfelder argues, we have not seen a major breakthrough in the foundations of physics for than four decades The belief in beauty has become so dogmatic that it now conflicts with scientific objectivity observation has been unable to confirm mindboggling theories, like supersymmetry or grand unification, invented by physicists based on aesthetic criteria Worse, these too good to not be true theories are actually untestable and they have left the field in a cul de sac To escape, physicists must rethink their methods Only by embracing reality as it is can science discover the truth. Download Lost in Math – kino-fada.fr Sabine Hossenfelder is a theoretical physicist, and she s pretty mad about the way her subject has gone over the last thirty years She s written this book to tell you why she s mad, and what she s done to try and find out what went wrong She s talked with a bunch of people, some of them major stars of the physics world She s asked them questions and she reports their answers Somehow, even t...If you re into stuff like this, you can read the full review.Implausifiability in Physics Lost in Math How Beauty Leads Physics Astray by Sabine Hossenfelder The time it takes to test a new fundamental law of nature can be longer than a scientist s career This forces theorists to draw upon criteria other than empirical adequacy to decide which research avenues to pursue Aesthetic appeal is one of them In our search for new ideas, beauty plays many roles It s a guide, a reward, a mot...The universe is unacceptable to physicistsWell back into history, Man has tried to force nature into symmetry Some of our greatest scientists spent their lives trying to force the solar system and then the universe into spheres, cubes, cones and cylinders Or to find superpartners for every particle so they fit the newish theory of supersymmetry That it has never worked has deterred no one, it seems Sabine Hossenfelder is a theoretical physicist whose very job it is to create new theories The universe is unacceptable to physicistsWell back into history, Man has tried to force nature into symmetry Some of our greatest scientists spent their lives trying to force the solar system and then the universe into spheres, cubes, cones and cylinders Or to find superpartners for every particle so they fit the newish theory of supersymmetry That it has never worked has deterr...I figured that if Lubo Motl hated the book this much, it had to be worth reading It s usually a sound principle, and it didn t let me down this time either.One of my favourite illustrations from a science title was in Fred Hoyle s book on his quasi steady state theory It shows a large flock of geese all following each other, which he likened to the state of theoretical physics In the very readable Lost in Math, physicist Sabine Hossenfelder exposes the way that in certain areas of physics, this is all too realistic a picture Hossenfelder gives Hoyle s cosmological theory short shrift, incidentally, though, to be fair, it wasn t given anywhere n One of my favourite illustrations from a...It is reassuring to know that there are quite a few people out there not happy with how physics is going these days Reading, for example, Krauss half assed pompous non explanation for why there is something instead of nothing, or reading Tegmark s incoherent ramblings about his mathematical universe as he pats himself on the back for being oh such a crazy maverick, or basically watching the entire string community pat their collective backs so hard they ...reads like a Mary Roach book about particle physics altogether too many human interest physics elements, including descriptions of one interviewee s cats Astrokate , apparently a twitter authority Woit already handled a lot of this in 2007 with title Not Even Wrong Hossenfelder makes no useful suggestions, instead just dumping on people when she s not flying to Hawaii I couldn t disagree with her central thesis leaning hard on beautiful math is no substitute for testability reads like a Mary Roach book about particle physics altogether too many human interest physics elements, including descriptions of one interviewee s cats Astrokate , apparently a twitter authority Woit already handled a lot of this in 2007 with title Not Even Wrong Hossenfelder makes no useful suggestions, instead just dumping on people when she s not flying t...One thought experiment that I love is the Theseus Paradox, which asks the question that if a ship is repaired and all of its old parts replaced, is it the same ship that was originally built or a new one When looking at modern theoretical physics, I start to wonder if we re approaching a similar paradox where physics has been replaced by math and philosophy In Lost in Math, Sabine Hossenfelder seeks to answer a similar question Her contention is that desire for a beautiful theorem has become One thought experiment that I love is the Theseus Paradox, which asks the question that if...The author is someone who rates their own books on GoodreadsA fascinating philosophical take on how philosophical physics has become Physicists are hooked on various definitions of simplicity, involving fewer mathematical terms and especially fewer magic constants or voodoo constants as we would call them computer systems.The author is having deep existential doubts about how physics will peel back the next layer of reality Many modern theories not only are not currently being tested, but cannot be tested, some because they would involve, oh, s A fascinating philosophical take on how philosophical physics has become Physicists are hooked on various definitions of simplicity, involving fewer mathematical terms and especially fewer magic constants or voodoo constants as we would call them computer systems.The author is having deep existential doubts about how physics will peel back the next layer of reality Many modern theories not only are not currently being tested, but cannot be tested, some because they would involve, oh, say,energy than the Sun puts out, some because they literally are theories about things that don t impact our own physical universe at all, such as the multiverse.It s not an especially long book, and it is well written, but it took me a little bit of time to get through this, since I kept stopping to think, or to look stuff up A somewhat different perspective than Lee Smolin s The Trouble with Physics, which has some of the same concerns The author tre...

• English
• 24 September 2017
Sabine Hossenfelder
• Hardcover
• 291 pages
• 0465094252
• Sabine Hossenfelder
• Lost in Math