And as for "general-relativizing" quantum theory, this seems at best a distant dream beset by formidable obstacles both technical and conceptual. Indeed, one can still win a million dollars, and lasting global fame, merely by "special-relativizing" quantum theory.
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And most people, mindful of this and of their own mortality, prefer to work on things that may reasonably be expected to yield something appreciable over the course of one human lifetime. So would-be quantizers of gravity are never going to be numerous. Which decreases the odds.
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I don't actually think having lots of people working on quantum gravity helps very much: the problem is that they all tend to think similar thoughts, for various obvious reasons.
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This is one reason I've been I've been trying to work on environmental / energy issues, even though pure math is a lot easier for me. All sorts of scientific puzzles will eventually get solved if our civilization lasts long enough, but not otherwise (at least not here).
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Absolutely. We may differ in our estimates of the time needed for humans to "quantize gravity,' but not on this more fundamental point. Of course working on these other issues engenders sympathy with Gauss, who wistfully regretted how much easier are the problems of mathematics.
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