TWP III: What Lies Beyond?
Act III, Scene I
[Lights up to reveal a The Sage, seated cross-legged on a low platform. Standing before him is The Student. Both are dressed in white robes]
STUDENT: Master, tell me how I may know the secrets of Nature.
[Sage appears to ignore him, remains seated with his head down.]
STUDENT: Umm...
[Sage looks up slowly, adjusts volume control on his Ipod.]
SAGE: Listen...
STUDENT: I am listening!
SAGE: Listen to what Nature is telling you!
STUDENT: But there are all these moduli - all these minima!
[Sage removes earpiece.]
SAGE: I didn't say listen to Lenny friggin Susskind! Listen to the data. To Nature.
[Student bows, looks puzzled. Upstage center is illuminated to reveal a set of large speakers. Sage plugs Ipod into sound system.]
PINK FLOYD: Teacher, Teacher... [very loudly. Fade to black as song continues.]
[Spotlight on a short redhead, the director, fourth row center.]
DIRECTOR: OK, better. Lose the Pink Floyd though. Go with something from this century.
*********
So is there physics after string theory? It's clear that many string theorists don't think so. Typical of the arrogance that is so offensive to outsiders is Joe Polchinski's oft-quoted reaction to being asked to organize a conference section on alternatives to string theory: "There aren't any."
The gods are notorious for singling out that sort of hubris for special punishment. Smolin clearly regards it as a kind of self-inflicted blindness.
So, what is our author's advice?
Look around, he says. There are lots of odd facts lying around just crying for some explanation. How about some details of the cosmic microwave backgound? How about dark matter? How about MOND? And dark energy! He likes GKZ and DSR (GKZ is the puzzle that there seem to be slightly to many ultra-energetic cosmic rays. DSR is a cure based on a variable speed of light.) Loop Quantum Gravity is close to his heart, but here, perhaps even more than in Strings, it has proved impossible to make contact with experiment.
MOND seems a bit sickly after the latest evidence for dark matter, and one of his other arguments is a bit dented by the fact that he thinks 10 billion light years is 10^27 sec (try 9.4 * 10^27 s) as pointed out by another reviewer.
It seems to me that the book has lost some speed in part III, but not because his narrative powers have lessoned. The problem is that there isn't much there out there, beyond string theory. The odd facts he points out are interesting, but a lot of people are looking at them.
One point he does make is that DSR, if confirmed, would seem to falsify string theory. Of course that is only because it falsifies special relativity.
[Lights up to reveal a The Sage, seated cross-legged on a low platform. Standing before him is The Student. Both are dressed in white robes]
STUDENT: Master, tell me how I may know the secrets of Nature.
[Sage appears to ignore him, remains seated with his head down.]
STUDENT: Umm...
[Sage looks up slowly, adjusts volume control on his Ipod.]
SAGE: Listen...
STUDENT: I am listening!
SAGE: Listen to what Nature is telling you!
STUDENT: But there are all these moduli - all these minima!
[Sage removes earpiece.]
SAGE: I didn't say listen to Lenny friggin Susskind! Listen to the data. To Nature.
[Student bows, looks puzzled. Upstage center is illuminated to reveal a set of large speakers. Sage plugs Ipod into sound system.]
PINK FLOYD: Teacher, Teacher... [very loudly. Fade to black as song continues.]
[Spotlight on a short redhead, the director, fourth row center.]
DIRECTOR: OK, better. Lose the Pink Floyd though. Go with something from this century.
*********
So is there physics after string theory? It's clear that many string theorists don't think so. Typical of the arrogance that is so offensive to outsiders is Joe Polchinski's oft-quoted reaction to being asked to organize a conference section on alternatives to string theory: "There aren't any."
The gods are notorious for singling out that sort of hubris for special punishment. Smolin clearly regards it as a kind of self-inflicted blindness.
So, what is our author's advice?
Look around, he says. There are lots of odd facts lying around just crying for some explanation. How about some details of the cosmic microwave backgound? How about dark matter? How about MOND? And dark energy! He likes GKZ and DSR (GKZ is the puzzle that there seem to be slightly to many ultra-energetic cosmic rays. DSR is a cure based on a variable speed of light.) Loop Quantum Gravity is close to his heart, but here, perhaps even more than in Strings, it has proved impossible to make contact with experiment.
MOND seems a bit sickly after the latest evidence for dark matter, and one of his other arguments is a bit dented by the fact that he thinks 10 billion light years is 10^27 sec (try 9.4 * 10^27 s) as pointed out by another reviewer.
It seems to me that the book has lost some speed in part III, but not because his narrative powers have lessoned. The problem is that there isn't much there out there, beyond string theory. The odd facts he points out are interesting, but a lot of people are looking at them.
One point he does make is that DSR, if confirmed, would seem to falsify string theory. Of course that is only because it falsifies special relativity.
... one of his other arguments is a bit dented by the fact that he thinks 10 billion light years is 10^27 sec (try 9.4 * 10^27 s)...
ReplyDeleteLight year as a unit of time?
Try: 10 billion light years ~ 9.4 * 10^25 meters
Anon,
ReplyDeleteLight years (or meters) are perfectly good units of time if you believe in SR and *do the arithmetic right*. I should have said 9.4*10^27 cm (= 9.4*10^25 m), of course, and Smolin shouldn't have said 10^27 cm, which is what he did say.