How to Modify Gravity

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It is easy to imagine the strength of gravity changing. But what if you wanted to change the direction in which gravity pointed? If the game you are playing is the source of gravity is just ordinary matter, there is no dark matter. It is very hard to imagine just changing the theory of gravity so that the force of gravity points in a different direction. Points somewhere other than where the ordinary matter is. Guess what? I guess why I am leaving you down this primrose path because that is exactly the data we have.

Physics is in crisis, what else is new? That's what we hear in certain corners, anyway, usually pointed at "fundamental" physics of particles and fields. (Condensed matter and biophysics etc. are just fine.) In this solo podcast I ruminate on the unusual situation fundamental physics finds itself in, where we have a theoretical understanding that fits almost all the data, but which nobody believes to be the final answer. I talk about how we got here, and argue that it's not really a "crisis" in any real sense. But there are ways I think the academic community could handle the problem better, especially by making more space for respectable but minority approaches to deep puzzles.

Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2023/07/31/245-solo-the-crisis-in-physics/

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