Letter from a reader: “What’s so bad about randomness?”

[The best part of publishing a book has been getting feedback from readers who report their own experience as it relates to what I wrote about. With permission, I want to share this letter which I received the other day from Dave Hurwitz, a classical music critic.]

Dear Dr. Hossenfelder,

I hope that I am not bothering you, but I just wanted to write to tell you how much I am enjoying your book “Lost in Math.” I haven’t quite finished it yet, but I was so taken with it that I thought I might write to let you know anyway. I am about as far away from theoretical physics as it’s possible to be: I am a classical music critic and independent musical scholar, and I support myself working in real estate; but I am a very serious follower of the popular scientific literature, and I was so impressed by your directness, literacy, and ability to make complex topics digestible and entertaining for the general reader.

I am also very much in sympathy with your point of view. Even though I don’t understand the math, it often seems to me that so much of what theoretical physicists are doing amounts to little more than a sort of high-end gematria – numerology with a kind of mystical value assigned to mathematical coincidence or consistency, or, as you (they) call it, “beauty.” I cringe whenever I hear these purely aesthetic judgments applied to theoretical speculation about the nature of reality, based primarily on the logic of the underlying math. And don’t get me wrong: I like math. Personally, I have no problem with the idea that the laws governing the universe may not be elegant and tidy, and I see no reason why they should be. They are what they are, and that’s all. What’s so bad about randomness? It’s tough enough trying to figure out what they are without assigning to them purely subjective moral or aesthetic values (or giving these undue weight in guiding the search).

It may interest you to know that something similar seems to be infecting current musicology, and I am sure many other academic fields. Discussion of specific musical works often hinges on standardized and highly technical versions of harmonic analysis, mostly because the language and methodology have been systematized and everyone agrees on how to do it – but what it actually means, how it creates meaning or expressiveness, is anyone’s guess. It is assumed to be important, but there is no demonstrable causal connection between the correctness of the analysis and the qualitative values assigned to it. It all comes down to a kind of circular reasoning: the subjective perception of “beauty” drives the search for a coherent musical substructure which, not surprisingly, once described is alleged to justify the original assumption of “beauty.” If you don’t “get” physicists today, then I don’t “get” musicologists.

Anyway, I’m sorry to take up so much of your time, but I just wanted to note that what you see – the kind of reasoning that bothers you so much – has its analogues way beyond the field of theoretical physics. I take your point that scientists, perhaps, should know better, but the older I get the more I realize two things: first, human nature is the same everywhere, and second, as a consequence, it’s precisely the people who ought to know better that, for the most part, seldom do. I thank you once again for making your case so lucidly and incisively.

Best regards,

Dave Hurwitz
ClassicsToday.com