The Elegant Universe

J. B. Wood · science forum beginner Joined: 04 May 2005 Posts: 8

Hello, all. PBS is re-airing Brian Greene's NOVA series here in the metro
Washington DC area. Dr. Greene explains, in plain language (the "Isaac
Asimov approach" for the lay person), the principles of QM and GM and the
historical quest to unify these theories. My question is to those of you
with expertise in the GM/QM area - Are the explanations provided by Dr.
Greene and the other presumbly notable physicists in the NOVA series
shared by the community of physicists at large? Thanks for your time and
comment. Sincerely,

John Wood (Code 5550) e-mail: wood@itd.nrl.navy.mil
Naval Research Laboratory
4555 Overlook Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20375-5337

bjflanagan · science forum beginner Joined: 07 May 2005 Posts: 39

J. B. Wood wrote:
My question is to those of you

Uncle Al · science forum Guru Joined: 24 Mar 2005 Posts: 1226

"J. B. Wood" wrote:

Guest · Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2005 3:18 pm Post subject: Re: The Elegant Universe

On Fri, 10 Jun 2005, J. B. Wood wrote:

Joseph.D.Warner · science forum beginner Joined: 13 Jun 2005 Posts: 1

J. B. Wood wrote:

J. B. Wood · science forum beginner Joined: 04 May 2005 Posts: 8

In article <Pine.LNX.4.61.0506130324520.24859@zeno1.math.washington.edu>,
tessel@um.bot wrote:

bjflanagan · science forum beginner Joined: 07 May 2005 Posts: 39

Uncle Al wrote:
The models are a matter of personal taste, neither valid nor invalid -
philosophy!

Flanagan
This popular modern thought-cliche is a wonderful device whereby the
user achieves an illusion of intellectual superiority to all
philosophers while simultaneously maintaining a hermetic ignorance of
their subject.

Uncle Al:
Whether any of the foregoing bears on the nature of physical reality is
simply unknown. None of this bushwa is predictive.

Flanagan
By now the pattern should be clear.

Uncle Al:
Absent empirical test for falsification, prediction vs. observation,
it's not science. That doesn't mean it is not useful, but it is not
science.

Flanagan
Those who work in string theory are trained as scientists. Their highly
mathematical subject is constrained by physical parameters. String
theory is post-dictive in that it accounts for a vast body of
experimental data.

So far as prediction goes, the theory postulates the existence of
projective vector manifolds which fiber over space-time; curiously
enough, we observe such manifolds every waking moment, but this obvious
identification is not made for reasons which are essentially
philosophical -- or, more accurately, are due to an often smug
ignorance of philosophy.

"Thus the colors with their various qualities and intensities fulfill
the axioms of vector geometry if addition is interpreted as mixing;
consequently, projective geometry applies to the color qualities."
(Weyl)

"... so few and far between are the occasions for forming notions whose
specialisations make up a continuous manifoldness, that the only simple
notions whose specialisations form a multiply extended manifoldness are
the positions of perceived objects and colours." (Riemann)

"A speck in the visual field, though it need not be red must have some
colour; it is, so to speak, surrounded by colour-space. Notes must have
some pitch, objects of the sense of touch some degree of hardness, and
so on." (Wittgenstein)

"It has often been said, and certainly not without justification, that
the man of science makes a poor philosopher. Why then should it not be
the right thing for the physicist to let the philosopher do the
philosophizing? Such indeed might be the right thing at a time when the
physicist believes he has at his disposal a rigid system of fundamental
concepts and fundamental laws which are so well established that waves
of doubt can not reach them; but, it can not be right at a time when
the very foundations of physics itself have become problematic as they
are now... In contrast to psychology, physics treats only of sense
experiences and of the 'understanding' of their connection. But even
the concept of the 'real external world' of everyday thinking rests
exclusively on sense impressions." (Einstein)

FearlessFerret · science forum beginner Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 17

J. B. Wood wrote:

Guest · Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2005 7:26 am Post subject: Re: The Elegant Universe

I inquired:

Google