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Physicists War Over a Unified Theory
beggs writes: "I was looking through the New York Times and came across an article which talks about a new front in the war to find a unified theory, but this one does not come from the particle physicists, it comes from the solid state physicists. Here is a little quote for wet your appetite: 'some solid-state physicists are trying to show that the laws of relativity, long considered part of the very bedrock of the physical world, are not platonic truths that have existed since time began.'"
I know nothing about physics. So basically whatever Stephen Hawking says about this, that's my opinion too.
The beauty of creation is that we will always have something more to discover.
How do you know?
It sounds a bit like the argument between Java and Perl to me :) There are those who believe that things that are clean and orderly are "right" and there are those that believe things that are loose and flexible are "right". (There are those that believe that life here began... out there...)
;)
In any case it's an interesting path to explore. I lean towards the loose and flexible side myself. If you saw my code you'd be able to tell
I am I the only one, but is anyone else worried that when they finally find the unified theory, "The Theory that Explains Everything," that it'll wind up being Murphy's Law?
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
General Relativity orders a positive charge, but comes under fire from ballistic missiles. It's time for a negative charge!
__
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IANAP (Physicist, naturally), but I'd have to say that the solid-staters argument makes sense. It seems arrogant to think that the universe must obey these silly little laws we come up with. Mathematical laws are a tool, they simpify the workings of the universe so a human mind can grasp them. But they are not the universe. I would tend to agree with thier arguement that as systems get more complex, new rules come into play. How then can the universe's intricate workings be summed up in a few silly little equations?
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I've found the answer! The universe isn't dominated by some elaborate unified theory, or general relativity, or quantum mechanics, or anything like that. I've found a principle that applies everywhere. Everywhere I look, there it is. The central principle of the universe is: STUPIDITY! It all makes sense now . .
Well, at least its the central principle in my life,
-- If any of the above made sense, I assure it was purely by accident.
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At my old university, we simply referred to these as "God's Units". Of course, I'm in a maths department now, so we just write c and leave all the fiddling about with actual numbers to the physicists.
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dude, 42!!!
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To quote (by memory) from the Hitchhikers' guide:
There's a theory saying that, if we ever figure out the Universe, it will be immediately replaced by something even more complicated. There's another theory saying that already happened.
If the solid-state physicists don't stand up and fight, then the particle physicists have already won...
If only so many wars were fought so civily, with publication of papers, logic and reason taking the forefront over all that gun-use and wasted effort trying to convince people with a big stick.
Of course, on the other hand, there's always fighting wars with lawyers and tax-men. That qualifies as throwing papers and logic and math around, almost. Pseudo-logic and semi-science works great when you're dealing with human judges rather than mathematics.
"Look at me, I invented the stove!" -- Ben Franklin
If a solid-state physicist hits a particle physicist over the head with a tree that fell in the woods while nobody's around, we can finally get Schrödinger's cat out of that box...
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