tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post8265952775211864781..comments2023-09-27T07:44:19.769-04:00Comments on Sabine Hossenfelder: Backreaction: Lost in Math: Out Now.Sabine Hossenfelderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.comBlogger110125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-18036884136381771672019-07-25T04:52:08.470-04:002019-07-25T04:52:08.470-04:00Here is a (positive) review (by a well known histo...Here is a (positive) review (by a well known history-of-science blogger) of a book (which I haven't read yet, but which is on my list) by a well known science writer who also looks at the (lack of) relation between maths and physics:<br /><br />https://thonyc.wordpress.com/2019/07/24/mathematics-or-physics-mathematics-vs-physics-mathematics-and-physics/<br />Phillip Helbighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12067585245603436809noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-45350866325978598462019-06-27T23:38:48.212-04:002019-06-27T23:38:48.212-04:00Really late posting this but I'm reading your ...Really late posting this but I'm reading your book in french and really enjoying it. I had read Lee Smolin's book but yours goes deeper and in more details I feel.<br />I sure hope you write more books. jslarochellehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18074208326694485418noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-5206519194252025302019-05-06T01:04:41.830-04:002019-05-06T01:04:41.830-04:00"Tenured" professors have contributed al..."Tenured" professors have contributed almost nothing to the general body of knowledge we recognize as Science. Nearly all of the contributors who did were shunned by those who had "tenure". By statistical analysis, the root of Science, it can be said that non-tenured researchers/thinkers are more likely to contribute advancements of the collective body of work known as Karmahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13414747139797559195noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-40335539826621962772019-05-06T00:20:14.149-04:002019-05-06T00:20:14.149-04:00Chris,
Thanks for the note. I have good news fres...Chris,<br /><br />Thanks for the note. I have good news fresh from my inbox: My next book will have a UK publisher! <br /><br />Re renormalization. I'm a pragmatist. Renormalization works, and that's good. I don't know why so many physicists (evidently including Ed Witten, as I only learned recently) thought that it can tell you something about the finite remainder which you have to Sabine Hossenfelderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-24366031254230537492019-05-05T19:43:22.706-04:002019-05-05T19:43:22.706-04:00Hi Sabine,
I only just got to read your book as o...Hi Sabine,<br /><br />I only just got to read your book as one cannot get it in UK bookshops (I am in New York now). I agree with Peter Woit's comment on the back cover. If only there were more like you! I have never read anything quite like it, but that is not a bad thing: the anecdotal style is appealing, especially given the complexity of the subject matter. I am not sure that it really cgoakleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11044125782681868426noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-22611594299637800222019-03-13T04:31:39.795-04:002019-03-13T04:31:39.795-04:00Andrew Wilcox --- The precise value is the result ...Andrew Wilcox --- The precise value is the result of rather arbitrary choice of units. In so-called natural units G = 1.David B. Bensonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15914145623997712113noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-46590018996083696112018-10-06T19:19:13.162-04:002018-10-06T19:19:13.162-04:00Peter Thieberger said ...
Dear Sabine,
I enjoye...Peter Thieberger said ...<br /><br /><br />Dear Sabine,<br /><br />I enjoyed reading your book and learned a lot. Many decades ago, I wrote a simple paper (Il Nuovo Cimento, volume 35, issue 2, pp 688-689, 1965) describing a gedanken experiment. There I show that the gravitational red shift can be derived without using the equivalence principle. It bothered me because this effect was supposed to Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04662881461896360391noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-3807736226218163982018-08-27T04:06:00.650-04:002018-08-27T04:06:00.650-04:00I started reading your book yesterday and today I ...I started reading your book yesterday and today I sent an email to a book publisher friend of mine to have your book translated into Polish (I live in Poland). Hope it's going to work out. The book is great, so clear and passionate!Grzegorz Lindenberghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02796102521940390229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-31308532230849517202018-08-18T18:56:09.993-04:002018-08-18T18:56:09.993-04:00Sabine,
I have been enjoying reading Lost in Math...Sabine,<br /><br />I have been enjoying reading Lost in Math. In several places you argue that there is nothing special about a uniform distribution as opposed to, say, a distribution that is sharply peaked at some particular value. You devote Appendix B to expanding on this: "But there is no mathematical criterion that singles out this probability distribution".<br /><br />What about Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13579225731529111600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-52281230382443679362018-07-23T20:27:03.307-04:002018-07-23T20:27:03.307-04:00A lovely book, and beyond interesting. It address...A lovely book, and beyond interesting. It addresses issues that have been a bother to me for some time now. From Einstein and the shoulders he stood upon, thru Bohr, Born, Dirac, Heisenberg and later Feynman and Wheeler, well, love them all. But a little book titled "We Have No Idea" served to deepen and solidify my suspicion of a lot of 'corn' being offered lately. I was Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04148322074837763555noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-88577690383629215822018-07-16T15:32:43.614-04:002018-07-16T15:32:43.614-04:00I finished your book. Maybe the pursuit of "b...I finished your book. Maybe the pursuit of "beauty" is only half the story. Maybe the standard model is boring, i.e. not fun. String theory is complex and fun to speculate on compared to a theory that was, almost entirely worked out years ago. A generation of smart people who hid, as adolescents, from the real world by playing computer games, have to be disappointed by a physics of Jim Gillaspyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06463149275374648364noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-10578974702412529992018-06-30T05:58:40.445-04:002018-06-30T05:58:40.445-04:00Dear Sabine
I' have just finished reading your...Dear Sabine<br />I' have just finished reading your book, very enjoyable.<br />But I still hope that we shall find magnetic monopoles.Daniele Fantasiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01130114671285364228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-5684685568658010532018-06-28T14:41:40.273-04:002018-06-28T14:41:40.273-04:00I’ve finished your book; I’m still pondering it. B...I’ve finished your book; I’m still pondering it. But one thing I came away with is that the leading workers you interviewed seemed to grasp the problem and expressed awareness of the need for something to change.<br /><br />I wonder what the rank-and-file worker-bee researchers think. They are likely to be the biggest “over-producers” and driven as much by economic necessity as anything else. Howsean s.https://www.blogger.com/profile/04190153587965701495noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-46205090676385803622018-06-24T21:14:56.440-04:002018-06-24T21:14:56.440-04:00I am kin to you as an investor. So many "acce...I am kin to you as an investor. So many "accepted" strategies are so wrong. Keep it up.<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04190609259648526074noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-38371178127045774982018-06-22T15:25:05.653-04:002018-06-22T15:25:05.653-04:00Well spoken Svensson. Students can also make a dif...Well spoken Svensson. Students can also make a difference, but that will take courage. And after all, they will be the new generation of physicists. Think about how you want to spend your research time for the rest of your life, making a difference matters, bringing out your ideas, your take on things, your individual potential, matters. Diversity is the mother of collective intelligence. A loud Koenraad Van Spaendonckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15090279727324831109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-12902587127007422192018-06-22T03:54:11.494-04:002018-06-22T03:54:11.494-04:00Addendum to my previous comment about Asimov's...Addendum to my previous comment about Asimov's novel "The Gods Themselves".<br /><br />"Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens."Liralenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06675133437955499435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-85232955456073079352018-06-22T02:19:44.777-04:002018-06-22T02:19:44.777-04:00@Phillip Helbig:
Oh, kewl! You met Asimov! Even...@Phillip Helbig:<br /><br />Oh, kewl! You met Asimov! Even though I didn't run into his science writings until I was in college, as a little girl I was devoted to him after I first read the short story "Robbie" in "I, Robot". The movie would have turned him over in his grave, although I think he might have approved of the liberties taken in the movie "Bicentennial Liralenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06675133437955499435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-86840509592409802192018-06-21T17:21:53.096-04:002018-06-21T17:21:53.096-04:00"I have never been an easy fit to academia. I..."I have never been an easy fit to academia. I guess I was hoping I’d grow into it, but with time my fit has only become more uneasy. At some point I simply concluded I have had enough of this nonsense."<br /><br />I'm only about halfway through my PhD and I already feel this way, although for slightly different reasons. So much money and effort spent on the wrong things for bad fulishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17357991149861003460noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-69673741421001047752018-06-21T13:03:07.199-04:002018-06-21T13:03:07.199-04:00Hi Bee,
Via a comment in Woit's blog:
https://...Hi Bee,<br />Via a comment in Woit's blog:<br /><a href="https://aeon.co/essays/has-the-quest-for-top-down-unification-of-physics-stalled" rel="nofollow">https://aeon.co/essays/has-the-quest-for-top-down-unification-of-physics-stalled</a><br />about the lack of progress in particle physics in a top-down approach:<br /><br />"All these challenges arise because of physics’ adherence to Arunhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03451666670728177970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-91887536101445044962018-06-19T06:07:08.311-04:002018-06-19T06:07:08.311-04:00Pietro,
Necessary for Weinberg's calculation ...Pietro,<br /><br />Necessary for Weinberg's calculation is only the assumption that the distribution is flat (or nearly flat) in the region of values where we can plausibly exist. So, you are right that you cannot have a uniform distribution over all possible values, but for this argument you don't need to have one. Implicitly this means you assume that the distribution tapers off somehowSabine Hossenfelderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-52583016328353802082018-06-19T06:03:33.477-04:002018-06-19T06:03:33.477-04:00RalphB,
There are no other physicists in my famil...RalphB,<br /><br />There are no other physicists in my family. Sabine Hossenfelderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-19818060144716929652018-06-18T17:07:46.650-04:002018-06-18T17:07:46.650-04:00Dear Sabine, thanks for writing this very interest...Dear Sabine, thanks for writing this very interesting book. I am about halfway through it.<br /><br />I have one question: regarding the cosmological constant, at one point in your book Steven Weinberg claims to have calculated a probability distribution for it in a Bayesian fashion, by first assuming a flat, constant distribution, then updating for the existence of life.<br /><br />My question pietrokchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17393722088432977621noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-63758918258324853862018-06-18T09:04:47.764-04:002018-06-18T09:04:47.764-04:00Karma / KC:
I think this is a big danger of many...Karma / KC: <br /><br />I think this is a big danger of many of the things that B calls out as nonsense - when they hit press releases and popularizations, they are given the same footing as other bits of "modern physics," and folks can wind up thinking that quantum mechanics should deserve the same skepticism. Skepticism is good, so why not? But quantum mechanics is on extremely solid DougOnBloggerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16411970226629138387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-81247523114885682332018-06-18T07:42:54.822-04:002018-06-18T07:42:54.822-04:00Thank you, Sabine! Reading the book now on my Kind...Thank you, Sabine! Reading the book now on my Kindle. Your viewpoints are refreshing, to say the least. Regarding particle physics in particular, is it fair to say that science has come to an end, that further experiments would be prohibitively expensive (if at all possible), and that all we can look forward to are speculations that never can be proven or disproven?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03607060927296721439noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-3903971429361150152018-06-18T07:31:21.855-04:002018-06-18T07:31:21.855-04:00"May I ask what your parents did for a living...<i>"May I ask what your parents did for a living? It seems that a high percentage of new physicists have parents who were physicists. This doesn't reflect well on the meritocratic pretensions of the profession."</i><br /><br />This is a <i>non sequitur</i>, unless you are implying that physicists are hired <i>because</i> they are children of physicists. I doubt that the employer Phillip Helbighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12067585245603436809noreply@blogger.com