The Crisis in Quantum Gravity

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

I think the quantum gravity is a very weird thing. It's experimentally very, very difficult to think about. While we've made sort of more progress than we really have any right to expect honestly in quantum gravity. And maybe we will continue to do that. Maybe we'll continue to get lucky. But the fact that we're not done yet and haven't figured out exactly the path from M theory to the standard model particle physics "in my mind is the least surprising thing in the world," he says.

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/

Support Mindscape on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.