Damien Katz

Aw, I thought you were going somewhere with that! :)

I get really fed up with the way people harp on about string theory - is it science, isn't it science, will it rain tomorrow, why does my souffle sink, etc - and I apologise but you're the straw that broke the camel's back.

Sorry, I suppose this post is just a product of my desire to relate everything back to software. Even the fundamental laws of the universe.

I hope to read the two new books that just came out re: String Theory.

String theory is turning into a mystic religion, where the next trillion dollar super-super-super-dooper collider will bring us the glad tidings...

I watched that "what the @#$%^% do we know" flick and it was the most bizzare thing ever. Like a bunch of whirling dervishes going on and on about how we can never behold the diety, but we should JUST BELIEVE that it exist.. take their mathematical word for it.

I've had it with string theory and it's suffocation of other research endeavours.

etc. etc.

Did you see this over at the New Yorker (via Kottke): Unstrung

That's a long article. Does it say I'm right? I only read long articles if they agree with me. ;)

It discusses both sides, but the author leans towards you being right. The gist of it is that a theory that has been around in one form or another since before either of us were born has yet to produce a testable theory, solve an existing problem, or even present a consistent version of it self. And hardly anybody seems to think that anything is odd about that, even though "since the late eighteenth century, no major scientific theory has been around for more than a decade without getting a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down."

A Critic at Large: Unstrung
Jim Holt

String theory's beauty
Ain't enough: it's time for more
Points of view, results.

http://drunkenvolcano.blogspot.com/

if they never come up with anything practical from it, then we should thank the gods. they'd just turn it into the most horrible weapon ever, or figure out some way to instantly turn the universe into a garbage dump. we've gone much too far toward everything having to be useful. it's quite enough to be fascinated for fascination's sake. (so sez me.)

finaly, a great site that says words that i dont understand, great job, im gonna be hanging around

Oh, Jesus. Don't mix up the "What the *Bleep*?!" people with real string theorists. I mean, I have pretty serious reservations about string theory, and I agree that it's bordering on pseudoscience... But string theory is not a cult based on some random crazy woman channelling a 30k year old Altantean warrior, ok?

exactly