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Hawking: No 'Theory of Everything'

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the you-all-been-punked dept.

Flash Modin writes "In a Scientific American essay based on their new book A Grand Design, Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow are now claiming physicists may never find a theory of everything. Instead, they propose a 'family of interconnected theories' might emerge, with each describing a certain reality under specific conditions. The claim is a reversal for Hawking, who claimed in 1980 that there would be a unified theory by the turn of the century."

1 of 465 comments (clear)

  1. Let's Count Them... by Chagatai · · Score: 1, Troll
    Here's his most recent statements that seem just off:

    -Don't contact ET. On the one hand, what are the odds that we will do so? On the other hand, oops, you're about 100 years too late if we count radio signals alone, ignoring the big thrust that took place in the 70s and 80s.

    -No need for God, gravity made everything. Creation versus evolution aside, doesn't gravity describe the attraction between particles based on their mass? So, if you have no particles, how could gravity make something ex nihilo?

    -No Grand Unified Theory. Seems like a bit of hubris taking its course here. "If I can't find it, no one will!"

    --
    --Chag