Freedom of Science

This article over at Not Even Wrong reiterates many points I have been making here about the state of physics today. Physics is a low level polemical sophistry practiced by professional Doctors of Philosophy such as Sean Carroll of Cosmic Variance. Dr. Woit calls Doctor Sean’s statements “standard misleading propaganda.” However you look at it, physics is junk science practiced by fame seeking underpaid opportunistic professionals. I copy and paste some quotes:

Dr. Woit: One could also come up with other evidence for continuing activity in string theory, such as the large number of press releases being issued claiming to have found new ways to “test string theory”, but the fact that these have all been bogus is relevant to evaluating whether this activity is a good thing or not.

Doctor Sean: a promising new approach has connected string theory to the dynamics of the quark-gluon plasma observed at particle accelerators

Dr. Woit: Connected? wonder how strong the connection is…

Doctor Sean: It is compatible with everything we know about particle physics”

Dr. Woit: … and also compatible with just about everything we know to not be true about particle physics…

Dr. Sean: Michael Green and John Schwarz demonstrated that string theory was a consistent framework

Dr. Woit: there’s a lot more to consistency than canceling that anomaly…

Dr. Sean: It was realized that those five versions of the theory were different manifestations of a single underlying structure, M-theory

Dr. Woit: … would be nice if we knew what M-theory actually was…

Dr. Sean: If the LHC discovers supersymmetry, string theorists will be happy, but if it doesn’t there’s no reason to give up on string theory — the superpartners might just be too heavy.

Dr. Woit: So, prospects for string theory remain bright, since with each new experiment the situation is: heads they win, tails doesn’t count.

Comment:

What are scientific activities practiced by physicists?

1. Issuing lots of bogus press releases

2. Making unjustified claims of cause and effect when there is no such connection.

3. To cast such a wide net that everything we know and we don’t know is included in the theory

4. Pick a notational quirk of the code, label it anomaly and cancel it and call it consistent framework.

5. Explain everything with M-Theory which is itself remains undefined.

6. Argue by authority and act by authority and enforce your doctoral authority over experiments: heads they win, tails doesn’t count.

Dear reader, this is the state of physics today. Physicists are supposed to be professionals in charge of protecting human knowledge and adding to it. Do you think physicists are paying their debt to humanity? Or are they acting like corrupt professionals who would do anything for 15 minutes of fame? Should there be a Hippocratic oath for physicists so that they are at least regulated a little bit?

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