A Mathematician Criticizes String Theory

Woit's book contains some discussions of mathematical and scientific concepts which may not be particularly clear to those who are intimidated by higher mathematics, but for those who are comfortable dipping their toes into these waters it's well worth the read.

String theory took a couple of hits a few years back with the publication of Peter Woit's Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory and the Search for Unity in Physical Law at roughly the same time as Lee Smolin's The Trouble with Physics. The two books feature many of the same complaints, but the emphasis is different, and each has its own merits and flaws.

In common, both books are concerned with the overwhelming embrace of string theory despite the fact that its never been confirmed by experiment and, more importantly, is so far beyond current experimental bounds that it's questionable if it could be confirmed (or refuted) even if energy considerations weren't astronomical. They are also highly critical of the "string theory landscape" concept which has become a common viewpoint over the last decade, in which there is a vast megaverse that contains nearly infinite possibilities, and that our "universe" is really just one small sub-section of that megaverse.

The major difference is that I felt that Woit's book spent a bit more time on the technical aspects of the underlying quantum theory, which is more his specialty anyway. Specifically, he really was able to illustrate some details about the role of the underlying symmetry which feels somewhat glossed over in other accounts, such as Lee Smolin's. The discussion is somewhat technical, but it's still laid out in a way which is highly accessible to a reader who wants to get into it without requiring a lot of background in science or mathematics, which is a hard act to pull off.

Overall, I'd highly recommend Woit's book for the reader who has a fairly solid understanding of science and mathematics, and won't be intimidated by the sophisticated discussions that arise within the book. Woit's book does an excellent job of filling in the gaps and making a clear analysis of some problems that still exist within the search for a unified scientific theory.