Trust Us, We're Scientists
Dr. X posts this from the Don't Break the Universe Club in Palo Alto:
"What is up with the physicists?
"Ok, if I were a reporter, I guest I would run with this story too. But, upon careful review, it becomes fairly obvious that these people have no fucking idea what they're talking about.
"Penrose says consciousness is a quantum phenomenon. Everyone else says that's bullshit, but he's Penrose and they're not...
"Tipler thinks God appears at The Omega Point (until then, apparently, you're on your own).
"And Hawking wants to take to the lifeboats.
"When I went to Stanford, long ago, a physicist friend told me 'you never really understand a new theory of reality, you just get used to it.'
"Anyway, if I have to take a physicist I'll take Dyson.
"Oh, and here is an amusing article critiquing string theory, which includes this observation:
A simple argument in string theory indicates that the cosmological constant should be at least around 55 orders of magnitude larger than the observed value. This is perhaps the most incorrect experimental prediction ever made by any physical theory that anyone has taken seriously.
"Suck it, string theorists."
posted by Latouche at Large at 11:21 AM
4 Comments:
"That's not right. It's not even wrong."
I think we're entering into one of those unfortunate times in physics where everyone's chasing more and more convoluted theories while we wait for someone to simplify everything with a flash of insight.
Or as Einstein once said:
"Suck it Luminiferous Aetherists"
Regarding Dyson:
I don't choose my physicists because I agree with their views on religion; I choose them based on their taste in popular music.
Dr. X posts this from The Land that Our Grandchildren Knew:
"Then may I recommend the work of Brian May. Here's a little ditty he wrote about the human challenges of space travel as journeys approach the speed of light:
In the year of thirty-nine’
Assembled here the volunteers
In the days when lands were few
Here the ship sailed out into the blue and sunny morn’
The sweetest sight ever seen
And the night followed day
And the storytellers say
That the score brave souls inside
For many a lonely day
Sailed across the milky seas
Ne’er looked back never feared never cried
Don’t you here my call?
Thought you’re many years away
Don’t you hear me calling you?
Write your letters in the sand
For the day I’ll take your hand
In the land that our grandchildren knew
In the year of thirty-nine’
Came a ship in from the blue
Volunteers came home that day
And they bring good news
Of a world so newly born
Though their hearts so heavily weigh
For the earth is old and grey
Little darlin’ we’ll away
But my love this cannot be
Oh so many years have gone
Though I’m older but a year
Your mother’s eyes from your eyes cry to me
Don’t you hear my call?
Though you’re many years away
Don’t you hear me calling you?
Write your letters in the sand
For the day I’ll take you hand
In the land that our grandchildren knew
Don’t you hear my call?
Though you’re many years away
Don’t you hear me calling you?
All your letters in the sand
Cannot heal me like your hand
For my life still ahead pity me
"
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