Theoretical Physics Breakthrough or Hoax?

Brooklyn Bob writes "Ever get the feeling that some theoretical physics papers just don't make sense? According to this New York Times article, you may be right. Genius or gibberish? Who knows?" This belongs on your virtual refrigerator with nice big virtual magnet.

Comments

I suppose

[xtac]

slashdot can contribute to this as well?

Gibberish is as Gibberish informs

[rufusdufus]

Just as it is with a post to slashdot, being right isnt enough. If a physics paper cannot be understood by physicists, and does not provide insight into anything meaningful or testable then the paper is rightly called gibberish.

Oops!

[AJWM]

This belongs on your virtual refrigerator with nice big virtual magnet.

Dang! That big virtual magnet just erased my virtual disk...

Have a heart!

[Subcarrier]

There was an excuse given by these guys' advisor in the article about these guys working for 10 years and they should get a degree for that, even if they didn't exactly display a command of the mathmatics behind their theory.

This is absolute bullshit!

After 10 years of patiently explaining the basics over and over again the advisor was probably ready to get rid of these boneheads by whatever means necessary, even if it meant giving them degrees.

A typically Western dogmatic response.

[theonomist]

You, sir, disregard what the great social critic Alan Sokal described as "counter-hegemonic narratives emanating from dissident or marginalized communities." I couldn't have said it better myself.

...the authors have systematically refused to answer, or selectively answered with further vague or absurd statements.

Could it be that the authors are simply not interested in employing the hierarchical male-dominated "conflict" paradigm of scientific discourse, but insist rather on a more culturally inclusive paradigm of multiple and divergent truths, realities, modes of existence? Could it be that their truth simply differs from that of their critics, and cannot therefore be profitably discussed on sci.physics.research?

To suggest that Western male physics applies equally in the more authentic nations of the world is a self-evident absurdity. To suggest that it has any relevance to pre-spacetime thermodynamic equilibrium is a characteristically arrogant assumption of the hegemonic mind. Get real, folks!

The fundamental evaluative condition of any paper in the field of theoretical physics is not whether it satisfies some arbitrary, imposed standard of so-called "objective" so-called "truth", but rather whether it is true for the author. High-energy physics, by its very definition, is a purely personal and subjective undertaking. No physical law can possibly be applicable to all observers.

I find it rather pathetic and sad that referees of publications in the physical sciences so often insist on printing only those constructions of "truth" which agree with so-called "experimental evidence", as if such "evidence" (mere columns of numbers) were in some way relevant to the aspirations of marginalized peoples (e.g. the "three meters per second per second" dogma, which has been passed down unchanged, unquestioned, by generations of white male physicists -- don't you think the time has come to abandon that hoary old shibboleth and replace it with something of more vibrant cultural relevance to the developing world?).

It's the same in Star Trek...

[jorlando]

When Geordi, Data and Wesley start talking about how to solve problems people say they talk gibberish, like a mechanics trying to deceipt a customer... it's only high physics that we don't understand today, but in the future will make sense, so they can save the Enterprise again!

I know that because I read (in The Sun, I think) that the Star Trek episodes come from the future in capsule times to Gene Roddenberry (he is a refugee from future). In fact, Star Trek is a soap opera from the future. Gene's relatives send the episodes to him so he doesn't feel so far away from home...

That's enough, if I talk more Ashtar Sheran will send that Xemnu boy to get me... and I have to make a call to these Bogdanov brothers, I have some theories that I wish to share with them.

Slashdot trolls, read this

[Ryan Amos]

Heh, I equate these guys as being the trolls of the physics world. Some are better than others, as witnessed on slashdot here. These guys just happen to be very good trolls.

Heck, they even have the same goals. Slashdot trolls aim to show how the mod system sucks, these guys are trying to show how worthless the peer review system is. Ultimately, however, they'll probably be given just as much credit as trolls, i.e. none at all. It's just because they've found a new medium to troll in that they're getting this much attention.

Re:Before Physics

[frank249]

Everyone knows that in the beginning there was nothing. Then God said 'Let there be light'. There was still nothing, but now you could see it.

Re:That's enough

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow! That's very extraordinary! A keyboard with *both* shift keys broken!

Re:That's enough

[SEWilco]

"However, just because the mathematics and principles involved are harder to understand..."

Allow me to simplify it for you: 42