String Theory Battle Royale
Friday March 30, 2007
Recently, string theorist Brian Greene & string theory skeptic Lawrence Krauss held a debate on the merits of a Theory of Everything at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
String theory is a popular but thus far untestable theory which attempts to unify quantum physics with general relativity. After nearly 40 years, string theory has yet to make any positive predictions which can be verified experimentally, something which has called into question whether there is any physical meaning to it, or even a point in pursuing it as a line of inquiry.
Comments
Considering that string theory hasn’t made a concrete and positive prediction, we might yet come to the idea that it’s a pointless approach to try to understand nature in it’s deepest and most basic principles from this perspective. This, to my understanding, is a layman’s conclusion. It just so happens that basic science is like a child, he has the right of being fed and taken care of for what he is and not for what he’ll be tomorrow. You do not take care of a human being for the practical results you might obtain in the future from him, you might raise a thousand children and none of them might do something for humanity. But if just one would do a simple but important contribution to humanity then the effort of raising a thousand was worth it. And the situation is quite analogous with basic science. String theory might be proven wrong in the immediate future as well as it might be right, so as to tell whether one or the other will occur, no one knows. But one can certainly support it for what it is today and for the rights in beholds. This does not mean that you can’t be skeptic about it, you have the right to do that as well.
Bravo Andres!
We are always looking for the answers to prove absence.
Kind of a glass half full way of life, eh?