“Don’t Talk About Physics Fight Club” Eric Weinstein vs Sean Carroll Science SHOWDOWNWeinstein declares:For centuries, scientists have grappled with the most fundamental question of them all - what is reality?
Is it a matter of common sense? Or can God or some higher being only know? And what was there before the Big Bang created the world we live in?
Einstein revolutionised our way of thinking - and then came along the wild world of quantum physics, where nothing plays by the rules - even Einstein's - and things seemed to exist in two places at once.
Today, the biggest brains on the planet are at loggerheads over what all this means - and for this special Uncensored debate, Piers Morgan is joined by two scientists with very different answers to the big questions - Dr Eric Weinstein and Professor Sean Carroll.
I think that 6:57 Sean and I probably agree almost completely on everything until 7:03 1972 then you have the first uh really serious situation where a mysterious 7:10 term is not only introduced into our common vocabulary uh called quantum 7:15 gravity um but it takes over as a fictitious history that the uh central 7:22 problem of theoretical physics is the quantization of gravity.Yes, 1972 was the end of the golden age of theoretical physics. The Standard Model was presented, and we then had good theories for the four fundamental forces. Those theories have held up well.
Then theoretical physicists went into wild goose chases for quantum gravity, string theory, and theories of everything. Very little has come out of it.
Weinstein has his own goofy theories that have gone nowhere.
Carroll is more directly tied to mainstream Physics work, but also promotes nonsense like many-worlds theory.
I wonder what the average non-physicist thinks of this debate. These were supposed to be leading scientists. Both have large online followings, and respectable credentials, without significant research accomplishments. But no actual science is discussed. It is all just goofy speculation and complaints about wacky ideas not being taken seriously. Weinstein says, in response to a question about time travel:
Well as as Sean has thoroughly digested 48:50 uh my paper he knows that I believe that there are either five or seven dimensions of time in a 14-dimensional 48:58 world which is split five of time uh 9 of space or seven of time seven of space 49:04 so when you talk about time travel it's times travel and only when time is 49:09 one-dimensional is there an arrow of time.Carroll answers a question about the Big Bang:
my personal favorite theory is there was a pre-existing universe out of which our cosmos arose 52:20 as a baby universe quantum fluctuation what was there before that no it's infinite in it's infinite in time in 52:25 both directions so what was there before so you mean it's never ending yeah. I 52:32 wrote a book if you want to read it, pierce, from eternity to here. it's a great book.Morgan is bewildered by all this, and says he believes in God. Normally I would say that theism is an unscientific matter of faith, but he seems more reasonable than these physicists.
Sabine Hossenfelder just released a video, Why Theories of Everything Keep Failing, trashing Weinstein among others. But her complaints are largely philosophical, and her dream theories are just as bad.
The real reason that theories of everything keep failing is that we already have one. The Standard Model plus general relativity explains all known tests of the fundamental forces. The unified theories are not even intended to explain any real-world observations, but to satisfy some philosophical desire for supersymmetry, proton decay, 5-dimensional time, or other such nonsense.
I wonder why there are not legitimate physicists pushing sensible science to the general public. If I were a big-shot Physics professor, I would be annoyed that the profession is being represented by podcasters with such silly and unscientific ideas. Where is R.P. Feynman when we need him? Surely a real physicist with real Physics stories could get to go on Piers Morgan and tell a better story.
My guess is that the real physicists are embarrassed by the lack of accomplishments in the field for the last 50 years, and by the wacky stories they and their colleagues have to tell to get media attention. Lisa Randall is one of the more sensible Physics professors, but to get attention she had to tell a crazy story about how dark matter wiped out the dinosaurs. Even still, the press wanted her to tell stories about how she had to make coffee for everyone in the lab, and she did not have such stories.
Professor Dave has 3.8 million subscribers, so he is also a top science communicator. He is also aggressively hostile towards Pres. Trump and everyone else he dislikes. He does a takedown of the debate:
Sean Carroll Humiliates Eric Weinstein (Piers Morgan is Also Dumb)Carroll sides strongly with Carroll over Weinstein.Eric Weinstein loves pretending to be a physicist. This is something he is able to do on podcasts because most people can't tell that he isn't one. But real physicists can see right through him. And today we get to watch one of these real physicists, Sean Carroll, tell Eric that he isn't a physicist at all right to his smug face, over and over again. It's extremely satisfying.
It is true that Carroll is closer to mainstream Physics than Weinstein, but they are both pushing goofy and untestable abstract theories. I find them all very annoying. Weinstein is pushing junk that is not even published, and Carroll is pushing junk that is published. Professor Dave is smart enough to see through Weinstein, but not smart enough to see through Carroll.
Sean he deserves a round of applause for sticking it to 51:20 Eric like he deserves. it's still not quite enough fire for me as the segment wrapped without Eric being held 51:27 accountable for most of what he said but it's still a step in the right direction. and I'll just have to accept that 51:32 academics will likely never be as aggressive as I would be. at any rate I hope that Shawn can serve as an example 51:39 for other scholars such that we see more of them dunking on frauds in precisely this manner.Dave applauds Carroll for exceoriating Weinstein for failing to show that his theory reproduces scattering experiment calculations that the Standard Model does so well. Good point, but Carroll praises string theory and many-worlds theory, and they also fail to make any verifiable quantitative prediction.
If you want more from Weinstein, Physics is Dead | feat. Eric Weinstein also dropped this week. He is the older brother to Bret Weinstein, who has a strong online following in evolutionary biology, and is no relation to Galina Weinstein, whom I criticized last week. He also worked for Peter Thiel.
Roger,
ReplyDelete'Professor Dave' is a vulgar clod who pretends being educated is a license to slander others he doesn't like. In full disclosure, I've watched five or six of his videos before reaching my limit with his l'enfant terrible antics. I've also commented on his site that he isn't remotely professional as an educator, and should have his mouth washed out with Lava soap.
Dave's favored methodology is to spray paint scientific ideas over the top of his personal vendettas to make them sound more credible, and then uses excessive ad hominem insults based on peoples appearances and speech patterns. His audience seems to lap up his 'mean girls' put downs and consider them convincing scientific arguments...which isn't terribly surprising since many of them seem to be college students.
Dave apparently likes the elitist academic establishment, considers it above any reproach, and revels in gatekeeping to keep all those icky vile disgusting people who don't share his lefty politics away from the purity of academia.
'Science Communicators' shouldn't use profanity to mix scientific ideas together with their personal politics and think themselves clever because of their high school insults. I give much credit to Sabine who keeps her personal insults to herself, clarifies her own positions, and criticizes arguments, ideas, and positions, not the people who hold them.
I consider Sean Carroll to be inherently dishonest. He preaches how precious the scientific method is, then elides to String theory which isn't observable or measureable in any known way, and which provides no predictions which can either be tested or falsified, and after forty-plus years has shown no ability whatsoever to solve problems. Empty speculation about possible string theory tests on colliders the size of the Earth's orbit at energy levels that would require the output of entire suns are not even remotely plausible figleafs for a theory that has yet to do anything but piddle around in mathematical toyboxes like Ads/CFT, and has nothing to do with physics or science.
>Where is R.P. Feynman....
ReplyDeleteYou're kidding, right? Feynman was a charlatan and a murderer (or at least guilty of manslaughter). Of course he escaped being prosecuted for that incident where he flew into a hissy fit rage and sabotaged Josef Papp's engine, which led to an innocent bystander's death.