It is strange that “Forty Years of String Theory: Reflecting on the Foundations” doesn’t have any of the bigger names from string theory (particularly, no Ed Witten?), but has pretty much the full list of controversial (some people would say outright currently crackpotish[1]) names like ’t Hooft, Verlinde, Smolin and lately also Susskind. I am not picking sides, but this raises all sorts of red flags about it. I bet Motl will be all over this.
I’ll have a look at Susskind’s paper, particularly if he is railing against reductionism.
[1] ’t Hooft’s and Susskind’s contributions to modern theoretical physics can’t be understated, but their general reputation suffered in recent years.
All the people you’ve mentioned (with the arguable exception of Smolin) are extremely deep theorists, and I don’t see how anyone reasonable could label them crackpots. Sure, their recent work has been highly speculative and deviates from the theoretical mainstream in various ways, but I’d hope readers on this website wouldn’t consider those sufficient criteria for crackpottery.
I’m sure Motl has called some of them crackpots, but Motl is basically a theoretical physics troll and his judgments about his colleagues are usually laughably unfair and hyperbolic. I’d advise against treating him as a reliable source, even when he’s talking about his area of expertise. Sure, he knows his physics, but I’ve also found him to have a number of very bad epistemic habits, chief among them an abnormal aversion to admitting error.
I agree and tried to be careful saying “some people” (which is not exactly good practice, I know). As I noted below Motl is a fascinating specimen. I certainly don’t consider him to be a an authority on who is a crackpot or not, nor do I agree with many of his opinions or methods.
Still I think it is a strange mix of authors for this topic.
Gosh, thanks, fixed it… I know I’m not the first to screw this up, but still...
Yes, Motl has to be handled with lot’s of care, though usually as far as physics goes I find him alright (unlike say climate change and a bunch of other stuff). His tone can be off-putting, but I see him still as a useful contrarian in some areas and generally an interesting case study of an extremely bright person with some strange opinions and a very… interesting personality (to put it mildly).
It is strange that “Forty Years of String Theory: Reflecting on the Foundations” doesn’t have any of the bigger names from string theory (particularly, no Ed Witten?), but has pretty much the full list of controversial (some people would say outright currently crackpotish[1]) names like ’t Hooft, Verlinde, Smolin and lately also Susskind. I am not picking sides, but this raises all sorts of red flags about it. I bet Motl will be all over this.
I’ll have a look at Susskind’s paper, particularly if he is railing against reductionism.
[1] ’t Hooft’s and Susskind’s contributions to modern theoretical physics can’t be understated, but their general reputation suffered in recent years.
All the people you’ve mentioned (with the arguable exception of Smolin) are extremely deep theorists, and I don’t see how anyone reasonable could label them crackpots. Sure, their recent work has been highly speculative and deviates from the theoretical mainstream in various ways, but I’d hope readers on this website wouldn’t consider those sufficient criteria for crackpottery.
I’m sure Motl has called some of them crackpots, but Motl is basically a theoretical physics troll and his judgments about his colleagues are usually laughably unfair and hyperbolic. I’d advise against treating him as a reliable source, even when he’s talking about his area of expertise. Sure, he knows his physics, but I’ve also found him to have a number of very bad epistemic habits, chief among them an abnormal aversion to admitting error.
I agree and tried to be careful saying “some people” (which is not exactly good practice, I know). As I noted below Motl is a fascinating specimen. I certainly don’t consider him to be a an authority on who is a crackpot or not, nor do I agree with many of his opinions or methods.
Still I think it is a strange mix of authors for this topic.
Typo alert: not “t’Hooft” but “’t Hooft”.
Motl is … not exactly immune to charges of crackpottery himself.
Gosh, thanks, fixed it… I know I’m not the first to screw this up, but still...
Yes, Motl has to be handled with lot’s of care, though usually as far as physics goes I find him alright (unlike say climate change and a bunch of other stuff). His tone can be off-putting, but I see him still as a useful contrarian in some areas and generally an interesting case study of an extremely bright person with some strange opinions and a very… interesting personality (to put it mildly).