SuperString Theory
Super String theory, interesting it is. But how useful and possible is it?
The companion paper I select is "String Theory: An Evaluation" written in 2001 "from the perspective of a quantum field theorist now working in the mathematical community".
In this paper, the author regarded that the super string theory has been extremely successful only in terms of public relations. Which means that super string theory has made many best selling books. It becomes a fashion among both lay-men and researchers. But so far no one has managed to "extract any sort of experimental prediction out of the theory". It cannot be falsified by any conceivable experimental result. Although there has not been any breakthrough in the super string theory in recent decades, more and more researchers, graduate student are still devoting themselves to this theory. The author thought that this is not a good sign for the development of physics because the author is not optimistic about super string theory.
To me, I am neutral about super string theory. I would like to analyze it from the perspective of philosophy of science. According to Lakato's principles of scientific change, it is acceptable to protect a research program for a while, during a period when it is degenerating. As to super string theory, it is hard to say that it is degenerating since it is now a very popular, hot topic in physics. But it is hard to say that it is progressive because really there has not been significant process over the past decades. We can say that super string is stable at the best. So, from the philosophy of Lakatos, it is tolerant that we provide some more and time space for super string theory to develop, and to see what will happen.
Also according to Lakatos, there should be competing research programs operating in parallel and compete in an ongoing way. From this perspective, the dominance of super string theory right now is really not a good sign for the sake of the development of physics. Right now, "graduate students, post-docs, and untenured junior faculty interested in physics..,. are under tremendous pressures in a brutal job market to work on the latest fad in string theory". Too much emphasis has been put on this. For the development of physics, we need a change.
The companion paper I select is "String Theory: An Evaluation" written in 2001 "from the perspective of a quantum field theorist now working in the mathematical community".
In this paper, the author regarded that the super string theory has been extremely successful only in terms of public relations. Which means that super string theory has made many best selling books. It becomes a fashion among both lay-men and researchers. But so far no one has managed to "extract any sort of experimental prediction out of the theory". It cannot be falsified by any conceivable experimental result. Although there has not been any breakthrough in the super string theory in recent decades, more and more researchers, graduate student are still devoting themselves to this theory. The author thought that this is not a good sign for the development of physics because the author is not optimistic about super string theory.
To me, I am neutral about super string theory. I would like to analyze it from the perspective of philosophy of science. According to Lakato's principles of scientific change, it is acceptable to protect a research program for a while, during a period when it is degenerating. As to super string theory, it is hard to say that it is degenerating since it is now a very popular, hot topic in physics. But it is hard to say that it is progressive because really there has not been significant process over the past decades. We can say that super string is stable at the best. So, from the philosophy of Lakatos, it is tolerant that we provide some more and time space for super string theory to develop, and to see what will happen.
Also according to Lakatos, there should be competing research programs operating in parallel and compete in an ongoing way. From this perspective, the dominance of super string theory right now is really not a good sign for the sake of the development of physics. Right now, "graduate students, post-docs, and untenured junior faculty interested in physics..,. are under tremendous pressures in a brutal job market to work on the latest fad in string theory". Too much emphasis has been put on this. For the development of physics, we need a change.
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