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.
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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.)
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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)
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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)
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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.
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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.
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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?"
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Replying to @johncarlosbaez @MathPrinceps and
We are SO constrained by the scient. authorities of the "fathers" of EM, the quantum, and gravitation, that we don't investigate critically enough the phys-math foundations of their theories. Having so many fundamental questions unanswered, the times are ripe to do it.
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Replying to @ChrisPapavasili @johncarlosbaez and
I wonder about that too. Is there an account of the standard model suitable for a mathematically trained non-expert that doesn't just say what it is but also gives you a good idea of why it was inevitable, given the experimental data, that we would come up with it?
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Replying to @wtgowers @ChrisPapavasili and
@wtgowers - I suggest the historical introductions to physics here: http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/books.html … The information in these not sufficient for what you want, but it's necessary (and fascinating).2 replies 0 retweets 10 likes
To this I would only add: read Mackey, read Mackey, he is the master of us all. For anyone who longs for a mathematical understanding of physics, Mackey's pellucid expositions are inestimably precious. Sternberg is also good, but Mackey is a deity.
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Replying to @MathPrinceps @wtgowers and
When I was a grad student around 1987, George Mackey was one of the few living mathematical physicists that my thesis advisor, Irving Segal, actually respected. (He was a very critical fellow.) And thus I got to meet him.
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Replying to @johncarlosbaez @wtgowers and
It was at about this same time (I was a grad student then as well) that I enjoyed several lengthy telephone conversations with Mackey. I was struck by how closely his spoken discourse resembled his writings: he was clear, helpful, comprehensive, and penetrating. Also very nice.
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