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MathPrinceps's profile
Laurens Gunnarsen
Laurens Gunnarsen
Laurens Gunnarsen
@MathPrinceps

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Laurens Gunnarsen

@MathPrinceps

Mathematical physicist and mentor to mathematically talented youth. Talent is that which bridges the gap between what can be taught and what must be learned.

Joined June 2012

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    1. Laurens Gunnarsen‏ @MathPrinceps 8 Feb 2019
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      Replying to @MathPrinceps @johncarlosbaez and

      Meantime, it remains unclear whether any experiment can ever be done by humans that might reveal some essential predictive inadequacy in either general relativity or quantum theory. Each, supreme in its own domain and haughtily ignoring the other, seems all but invulnerable.

      1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
    2. Laurens Gunnarsen‏ @MathPrinceps 8 Feb 2019
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      Replying to @MathPrinceps @johncarlosbaez and

      So the situation is perhaps about as discouraging as it could possibly be. We know we're wrong, yet we lack access to phenomena capable of forcing us to correct our errors (and of guiding our guesswork as we struggle to correct them.)

      1 reply 1 retweet 2 likes
    3. John Carlos Baez‏ @johncarlosbaez 8 Feb 2019
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      Replying to @MathPrinceps @wtgowers @skdh

      I'm actually pretty optimistic that we'll solve this; it's hard to combine the insights of quantum theory and general relativity, but that very difficulty is helpful, because it provides a strong constraint in a situation where we don't have enough experiments. (continued)

      3 replies 0 retweets 4 likes
    4. John Carlos Baez‏ @johncarlosbaez 8 Feb 2019
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      Replying to @johncarlosbaez @MathPrinceps and

      All attempts to combine quantum theory and general relativity so far suffer from "internal" problems - problems you can detect without doing experiments. But there are also experimental puzzles that want explanations, like "dark matter" (or whatever is). (continued)

      1 reply 1 retweet 5 likes
    5. John Carlos Baez‏ @johncarlosbaez 8 Feb 2019
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      Replying to @johncarlosbaez @MathPrinceps and

      So, there are plenty of angles to work. But we may need 2 or 3 new ideas that only work well when combined. So, it could take decades. I quit working on quantum gravity because I wanted to do some things that would succeed in my lifetime. But in the long run I'm optimistic.

      1 reply 0 retweets 3 likes
    6. Laurens Gunnarsen‏ @MathPrinceps 8 Feb 2019
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      Replying to @johncarlosbaez @wtgowers @skdh

      In the long run, I'm cautiously pessimistic. The problems here are now clear enough to identify as fundamental; we'll need something vastly more than ingenuity and optimism to get past them. And, worst of all, it seems very doubtful whether we'll ever know if we've got it right.

      1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
    7. John Carlos Baez‏ @johncarlosbaez 8 Feb 2019
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      Replying to @MathPrinceps @wtgowers @skdh

      The existing theories of quantum gravity are so bad that it's very easy for me to imagine that someday people will come up with a vastly better one... and we'll all say "Duh! Why didn't anyone think of that sooner?"

      2 replies 0 retweets 4 likes
    8. Laurens Gunnarsen‏ @MathPrinceps 8 Feb 2019
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      Replying to @johncarlosbaez @wtgowers @skdh

      Anything's possible, of course. But a lot of very hard work, over a period of almost a century, by a lot of very brilliant persons has led only to embarrassingly bad theories. So I'd say that the augurs are hardly auspicious. You and I both left the field for a reason.

      1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
    9. John Carlos Baez‏ @johncarlosbaez 8 Feb 2019
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      Replying to @MathPrinceps @wtgowers @skdh

      When I say I'm optimistic in the long run, I'm not putting an upper bound on how long it will take. But I think our civilization will solve this problem if we don't kill ourselves off. I left quantum gravity merely because I wanted to succeed in some things in my lifetime.

      1 reply 0 retweets 3 likes
    10. Laurens Gunnarsen‏ @MathPrinceps 8 Feb 2019
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      Replying to @johncarlosbaez @wtgowers @skdh

      I suppose it really boils down to how optimistic you are about the long-term survival of our civilization -- and perhaps also about its prospects for gaining access to (and exploiting) extraterrestrial resources. I feign no hypotheses, but advocate caution. Extinction happens.

      2 replies 0 retweets 2 likes
      Laurens Gunnarsen‏ @MathPrinceps 8 Feb 2019
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      Replying to @MathPrinceps @johncarlosbaez and

      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.

      10:49 AM - 8 Feb 2019
      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        1. New conversation
        2. John Carlos Baez‏ @johncarlosbaez 8 Feb 2019
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          Replying to @MathPrinceps @wtgowers @skdh

          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.

          1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
        3. Laurens Gunnarsen‏ @MathPrinceps 8 Feb 2019
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          Replying to @johncarlosbaez @wtgowers @skdh

          It's very daunting to undertake something profoundly obscure and hugely difficult without help -- especially when so many other things worth doing attract so many interesting, stimulating people. Some problems simply get ignored for this reason -- for decades, or even centuries.

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
        4. End of conversation

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