I suppose the depressing starkness with which Susskind’s bereft position is revealed is also due, in no small part, to his efforts to reach a broad audience as well. 2. Dr. Leonard Susskind takes the layperson behind the scenes of an on-going … Michael Duff’s review in Physics World just more or less respectfully repeats Susskind’s argument, not challenging it in any way. On this score, one might facetiously say that String Theory is the ultimate epitome of elegance. In your link “http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=206#comment-3795” in a previous post, check out the talk of one of the authors (Prakash Panangaden) of the paper you linked to gr-qc/0407094. Congratulations to Dr. Woit for making this very relevant and timely debate possible. Here I think Susskind is confusing positivism (the philosophy that science should just deal with directly observable quantities), with falsifiability, which is different. He acknowledges that, based on Landscape arguments: My original guess was that supersymmetry was not favored, and I said so in print. But this tells us nothing about why it is small. At least, I hope it isn’t, because we’ve tried promulgating “truth” after bouts of deep thought, and that program of “discovery” has rather failed to deliver. Valiantly explaining it to his lay audience, Susskind, after introducing the moving parts of his theory (general relativity, quantum mechanics, vacuum … From what I remember, there was actually a lot more optimism in the early 80s about this than now, since people were pretty enthusiastic about GUT models, and there seemed to be a good chance that one of the scalar fields in a simple GUT model would do the trick. The theory of quarks. 2. The best known example is the quark theory prediction of the mass, spin and charge of the Omega-Minus particle. Infinitely or inconceivably extended; vast: "a coming together of heads of government to take up the cosmic business of nations" (Meg Greenfield). Channelling sounds from the cosmic void http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0407213 ], Finally, he thinks there’s a chance that maybe the structure of the Landscape is such that once one anthropically fixed the CC and some other constants, the remaining set of vacua would actually predict something. He is also seen in high-ranking military garb, meaning that apart from being married, he and Elizabeth were also … … It is conditioned by, and determined by, the science itself and the scientists who create the science. Popper rejected almost entirely the notion of positive evidence, which is really one of the cornerstones of the scientific method. But the impact of our philosophies upon our actions, our lives, is often devastating. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. ø½/¤Á,uewëØ* ê%õt!°âAü Ù¨=ç¤Ø¬õâoHá³14ück}¸Uº$E¤³'bnþó+óEĤ fbHõ#ªÈ7tTR6ºD«ÎÆ 1) The anthropic issue. “What I have never heard is criticism based on the unfortunate inelegance or the lack of uniqueness of String Theory”, If he has never heard this criticism, it’s because his fingers were plugging his ears while he said “na na na na na…”, @ MP: how braneworld theories can be tested: read Lisa Randall’s new book, Warped passages, or look at xxx.lanl.gov…. I’ll leave it to a professional biologist like P. Z. Myers to argue this point with him, but it seems to me both nutty and irresponsible, given the ongoing battles over the teaching of evolution (which Susskind is getting himself involved with in the very subtitle of this book). Here you seem too negative: experiments still have something important to say. Perhaps we invent hypotheses, but we verify the accuracy of those hypotheses and build theoretical frameworks through observation. (14) This gas forms part of a gigantic system of hot gas and dark matter that defines the cosmic landscape. There’s nothing wrong with hypothetical models, but mistaking or conflating such a thing, no matter how rigorous or ambitions, with the TESTED predictive power of a true theoretical framework is irresponsible. No string theorist is going to give up on string theory just because Advanced LIGO doesn’t see these effects. This sacred landscape was inclusive of burial mounds, circle mounds, and temple mounds! – String ‘theory’. The positivists were very much tied up into a correspondence theory of truth. by Bernard Carr et. And as always – don’t forget to check out our selection at the end of this article. Gram Parsons, Theology and Country Music” writes: “Parsons’ mission was the creation of a new way forward, […] I’ve been an admiring lurker for quite some time*, but this review prompted me to contribute. But finding new causes was exactly what a scientist like Newton had to do. A great essay, but profoundly depressing. While quark theory was problematic until 1973 since there was no workable dynamics, it was taken seriously because it made some very impressive, highly falsifiable predictions. Susskind seems to not have a clue about these things. 1 Relating to the universe or cosmos, especially as distinct from the earth. In any case, physics is supposed to be a much “harder” science than that part of psychology dealing with human emotions, and it is pretty strange for a physicist to be arguing that what he is doing really is science using this as an example. Sacrality (which is synonymous with reality) is achieved through the imitation of a celestial archetype....Although the whole world was the handiwork of the Gods its maximum potential sacredness was realizable only at a … It’s especially rich when the very definition of science, speciously derided as some “Popperian dogma”, is being deliberately reworked to defend a so-called theory that apparently can’t predict anything (or rather, predicts everything?). Introduction to Cosmologyby UC Irvine. ‘Most of the universe is behind the cosmic horizon and … And it’s interesting that he didn’t mention the one theory that has repeatedly faced claims of unfalsifiability, namely Freud’s theory of dreams and repression. The number at present count is zero. adding a footnote to this paragraph in proof: This remark was written in the spring of 1994, [presumably he means 2004] but by the time I completed writing ‘The Cosmic Landscape’ a year later, the vultures had descended in force. Of course, there are alternatives to String theory, but the String-theory-dominated research establishment does its utmost to make sure that these particular suckers never get an even break. The last page of the talk is hilarious. Look no further than the “controversy” over Intelligent Design to see why respecting the meaning of words like “theory” is vitally important. This isn’t much of a argument for predictivity on this issue, but I guess his point is that sufficient study of the Landscape might somehow resolve this question, although all the evidence so far is that this is not possible. Using antrophic principle, string theorists can ‘explain’ the cosmological constant. Improvised music. That’s how science keeps itself honest. Susskind writes: “It took 20 years to do the experiments that confirmed inflation.” As far as I know people were calculating the effects of inflation on the CMB and starting to design experiments to see them within a few years after Guth’s work. Now that we’ve seen a preeminent physicist’s attempt to herald a new paradigm shift, by eschewing testability altogether in the name of “progress”, I fear for the integrity of the natural sciences in general, and physics in particular. Also see Discrete Quantum Causal Dynamics (gr-qc/0109053). The sober thinking these days, albeit with hindsight, needs the guiding voice and eye’s such as you attain in your varied writings. In ancient Roman religion, Saturn was a god of agriculture and wealth. This kind of framework allows anthropic causes, and so there is no a priori reason to reject them as unscientific. It’s basically a lengthy version for the general public of the argument that he has been, with some success, trying to sell to the physics community for the last few years. More example sentences. Superbly written, and I am always deeply appreciative of scientists who can not only think clearly, but also communicate their thoughts with equal parts clarity and cogency to a lay audience (in physics, at least). This is the only apology for continued existence of philosophy which I am able to offer.” (from Objective Knowledge), (I don’t think this transcription is completely accurate, but it’s very close to the original. I was under the impression that it was merely a fringe in the community. Of course, the phylosophical antrophic principle can be used with theory A! After attacking falsifiability as a criterion for a scientific theory, Susskind does admit that a theory has to make some predictions, even if they’re not the sort that could falsify the theory. Today, landscape tattoos are no longer a hype like they were a few years ago. The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design by Leonard Susskind "The Cosmic Landscape" is an informative, provocative theoretical physics book about how the world came to be the way it is. Deeming unscientific any proposition of a supernatural agency in setting the physical dials so exactly, Susskind advances a radical concept he calls the "landscape." The antrophic principle basically says that cosmological constant has value we measure because if has other value life would be imposible and we would not measure it! Susskind claims that after Guth first came up with this in 1980, it was attacked as unfalsifiable. In America we have figures like C. S. Peirce espousing a theory fairly similar, for instance. We will also offer custom-made planters, … …but that’s not going to happen in the one that exists this go-round, and there certainly isn’t the slightest bit of evidence that a “pocket” of naturally selected near-identical bubble-universes in a “would-be” multiverse, would or should be preferred over an evolving biocentric universe, for which there is pre-existing observed justification for all the way down to your ancestors, the apes. He goes on to argue that the laws of physics implied by string theory have turned out to be highly non-unique: During the 1990s the number of possibilities grew exponentially. If what I have read in the “popular science media” about String “theory”, it is right to say it’s not a theory at all, but a hypothetical model. What may have constituted scientific proof for a particle physicist of the 1960’s—namely the detection of an isolated particle—is inappropriate for a modern quark physicist who can never hope to remove and isolate a quark. Manitou Arrow, 1993, Oil Painting 60 x 45 cm. This study is restricted to discussing a pre-European system of beliefs. Susskind devotes quite a lot of space to attacking the argument that the string theory picture of unification is “elegant”, instead promoting the idea that the properties of the universe come from some more or less random very complicated “Rube Goldberg” construction of a vacuum, one whose nature is just constrained by the anthropic principle. ‘As the cyclic activity of our solar orbit governs all life on earth, so our cosmic orbit governs all life in the solar system.’. Good post, although I’d quibble with your discussion of logical positivism. (He hasn’t actually done much work on the Landscape himself, right?). they block the good and interesting, and let through confused stuff like this. It’s basically a lengthy version for the general public of the argument that he has been, with some success, trying to sell to the … Landscape Paintings, visionary outer space. All would admit theoretical entities, although they’d say our justification for theoretical entities comes from this verification principle. It is by no coincedence that the ‘boom and bust’ mentality of the 80’s, was perfectly matched with stringtheory’s creation and evolution. For the bizarre story of how this debate came about, including the rejection by the arXiv of a submitted “paper” by Susskind about this, see here. While I do not consider his evidence to be all that strong, the problem is a numerical, not philosophical one. No-one is going to take you seriously in this forum until you have been savaged by Lubos Motl. Art Canvas Print 90 x 60 cm. Greg commands a deep and nuanced understanding of the vast landscape of cultural literacy and makes connections that are awe-inspiring. I am afraid the post-War (generally very favourable) perception of the public of physics(and physicists in general), not just string theorists, will be severely damaged. Michael Grimshaw in his essay “Redneck Religion and Shitkickin’ Saviours? All I was doing here was reporting on what Susskind is saying, he’s the one bringing claiming that string theory both allows and requires anthropic arguments, and that, perversely, this is a good thing. In one chapter he surveys the state of the ongoing political battle for the hearts and minds of his fellow theorists. cosmic calculations 1.1: How Far Is a Light-Year?, 4 Basic Astronomical Definitions, 5 common misconceptions: The Meaning of a Light-Year, 6 special topic: How Many Planets Are There in Our Solar System?, 7 1.2. While I disagree with Susskind’s ideas about anthropic reasoning, I have to say that I find Smolin’s arguments on the subject equally unconvincing. Susskind joins other string theorists like Lubos Motl and an anonymous Cambridge referee I dealt with in believing that the status of string theory is much like that of the theory of evolution. Heart tattoos on the feet of girls look cool and they don’t need to have any meaning. It is reviewed here and it is argued that the theory remains unfalsified. Realistic Saturn piece Watercolor Saturn with cosmic landscape tattoo What is the meaning of Saturn tattoo? The earliest modern philosophers of science, Descartes and Bacon, ridiculed the deductive reasoning of the scholastics. Preview: The Cosmic Landscape Astronomy 205. In the long run, though, if leaders like Susskind and Weinberg convince taxpayers that theoretical particle physics is not worth funding, then who are the real suckers? As a somewhat newcomer to the subject of quantum gravity, and an astrophysicist by formation, I find this all exceedingly interesting. From this he draws the following bizarre conclusion: Judged by the ordinary criteria of uniqueness and elegance, String Theory has gone from being Beauty to being the Beast. Contribution to “Universe or Multiverse”, ed. David Gross Admits String Theory is in Trouble, The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design, It’s Equal but It’s Different » Blog Archive » Physics news…, Not Even Wrong » Blog Archive » Susskind Interview at New Scientist. Lake landscape tattoo in a circle Landscape tattoos meaning This idea may fail because standard Inflation probably has been going on for a long time when the largest visible lumps were formed. Science is the horse that pulls the cart of philosophy. This he sets against a panorama of sky and landscape; the battle in Asia Minor thus assumes the aura of a natural disaster, or a scene from some cosmic Armageddon. ‘cosmic matter’. Cosmic Landscape We might think it strange that the masterpiece of a landscape painter like Altdorfer would involve human subjects at all. Smolin’s seems to mistake the fundamentally inductive character of this argument. We show however that it is still possible to make falsifiable predictions from theories of multiverses, if the ensemble predicted has certain properties specified here. The same talk is available as a PDF file. Update: I should have mentioned a recent well thought out review of Susskind’s book at Tech Central Station by Kenneth Silber. It is easiest to conceptualize the Cosmic Womb as a metaphysical place of creation. The consequences for recent discussions of the AP in the context of string theory are discussed.”, see the excerpt from a paper by Hendryk Pfeiffer. I think if you simply substitute “testability” for “falsifiability”, many these pernicious philisopical issues simply vanish. (16) It all adds up to a huge mess of cosmic change, collectively called galaxy evolution. But with a few caveats, I think one could be a logical positivist and not have trouble with most physics. Of course the true theory A may be internally compatible. Such is the “progress” we’ve achieved with deductive reasoning, it would seem. Also, at that time there were … I’ll give some examples: 1. For example, astronomers continue using general relativity on the prediction/explanation of phenomena. It’s quite sensible and worth reading if you’re following this story. At the level of accuracy that the curvature of space has been measured, there is no indication of such curvature. And yet: Because of its purported beauty and profundity, what started as hope does seem, at least in the minds of some, to have become a kind of faith among some physicists. I don’t recall ever having heard such a criticism, although it was always clear and remains true to this day that experimentally distinguishing between the predictions of different mechanisms for inflation is difficult. Behaviorist psychologists like B. F. Skinner who argued that statements about emotions were unscientific. He discusses the idea of using statistical arguments, acknowledging that there are severe problems with this due to the “measure problem” of not being able to compare sizes of infinite sets, as well as the problem of not knowing what a priori probability to assign to any given vacuum state. This may have something to do with the fact that LS has a prestigious job at a prestigious university. adjective. In fact, the battle was seen at the time as a turning point in world history: the Greek Occident had defeated the Persian Orient. Synchronous clocking of highly integrated digital circuits is threatening to become non-viable in the fairly near future, for performance and power consumption reasons as well as the sheer difficulty of implementation at very high clock rates. He then goes on to quote from something he wrote for a debate with Smolin at the Edge web-site. Again, Susskind completely confuses positivistic objections (that if quarks are not directly observable you shouldn’t talk about them), with falsifiability. The same comment I made about Weinberg also applies here: if one is in a position of influence then one is duty bound to try to encourage people to do one’s subject rather than to try to scare them off. However, the Anthropic arguments we gave concerning the special properties of three-dimensional space and four-dimensional space-time show that there would be a Weak Anthropic explanation for this observation also; but, for all we know, it may also be a consequence of the unique topological properties that four-dimensional manifolds have recently been found to possess. ‘As the cyclic activity of our solar orbit governs all life on earth, so our cosmic orbit governs all life in the solar system.’. Cosmic superstrings. I am excited to see this course because it will certainly open new ways to be creative in an interconnected cultural and cosmic landscape." The precise land that Fort Wayne would be built upon was already an ancient Native American burial ground. Around 12,000 years ago, as the ice age was coming to a close, a cosmic landscape was born. [By the way, asynchronous processor designs have been the subject of a growing R & D effort in the computer industry for the last several years. supersymmetry? The ‘theory’ predicts nothing of this world and is incompatible with physics we observe in laboratory. Since my position is well-known i add no more comments! (15) If the cosmic forces of the universe are to do their healing task, we must be fully open to receive them. “We all take our philosophies whether or not we are aware of this fact, and our philosophies are not worth very much. Page 315 Philip A. Clarke The Aboriginal Australian Cosmic Landscape. Therefore, the option opened by string theory reduces to either scientifically understand/predict/explain a ‘billion’ of things or scientifically understand/predict/explain nothing and just phylosophically explain ONE single thing. They block the good and interesting, and let through confused stuff like this. There was no apparatus for determining any new causes. Cases which have been claimed as successful predictions from the AP are shown to be not that. Large torrents of water were released from the melting ice, draining into what is now the Niagara River. Also, I sense an ironic twist in many of Weinberg’s comments on this subject that suggest he isn’t buying. This will not be without consequences. It is quite amusing to see the kid glove treatment of Susskind by other string theorists and contrast it with the reaction to Krauss; he obviously touched a nerve. extra dimensions?) I don’t see the slightest evidence for this, Universes with other exaples of the commonly speculated forms of life, like; Silicon based life, Nitrogen and Phosphorus based life. ‘Most of the universe is behind the cosmic horizon and cannot be directly detected.’. Art Canvas Print 60 x 45 cm. From Leonard Susskind, in his email exchange with Lee Smolin published on Edge.org: Good scientific methodology is not an abstract set of rules dictated by philosophers. I failed to see the preview unfolding below the entry field (first time posting on a blog and all…simple use of the scroll bar would have revealed the Preview), and hence didn’t proof-read my posts very well. Science, simply put, involves putting ideas to the test experimentally. This is what is needed to make this area solid science, rather than speculation. Despite the sometimes overly-pejorative nature of the conversation here (which it seems you’ve recently taken more assertive steps to limit, which I appreciate), I’m glad people like you are willing to stick their necks out and protest this corruption of the scientific method. Cosmic Landscapes of Texas was sharing a COVID-19 Update. I chose my handle to preempt any insults hurled my way by Dr. Motl, should he deign to swat at a biognat such as myself if something I might ever say touches a nerve. Perhaps the sciences are coming full circle to mere philosphy once again. He seems to have forgotten about at least one particular vulture, who back in 2003, tried to make this point at the question session after one of his colloquium talks. 1 Relating to the universe or cosmos, especially as distinct from the earth. Of course, this is not a scientific explanation. String theorists watched with horror as a stupendous Landscape opened up with so many valleys that almost anything can be found somewhere in it. ‘cosmic matter’. I’ll may just shut up now, but, anyway, thanks again Dr. Woit for your contributions to a worthy subject of debate. By “predict” i mean that one knows the result of an experiment before it was done. Perhaps part of the reason that the enemies haven’t pounced is that string theorists have kept their Achilles heel under wraps until fairly recently. Or its M unknown generalization! 'Rivers of gravity' found that define cosmic landscape NASA NEWS RELEASE Posted: August 1, 2002. These are highly non-falsifiable “predictions” of string theory. With all the years that String Theory has been studied, no one has ever found even a single defining equation! He asks: But is String Theory beautiful? In a review of the Duff review, Clifford Johnson answers the question of whether this sort of thing is still science with “I have not yet made up my own mind whether it sits well with me or not…” He makes a distinction between postdiction and prediction that I don’t quite agree with (if Susskind’s framework accurately postdicted even a few of the known Standard Model parameters, I’d be a believer). *I chose my handle to preempt any insults hurled my way by Dr. Motl, should he deign to swat at a biognat such as myself if something I might ever say touches a nerve. At the best, it is phylosophical one, but of no real utility on science. Oh, and apologies for some of my typos and other poor writing. Howdy all! 2. He answers these questions by first making fun of the supposed mathematical elegance of the theory: Elegance requires that the number of defining equations be small.
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