The Second Superstring Revolution

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D-brains threw a spanner into the works of string theory. Back in the 80s, when you knew that string theory was naturally defined in 10 dimensions,. It turns out there's like a gajillion more ways to compactify the extra dimensions. And it became very clear that you were not just going to start with M theory in 10 or 11 dimensions.

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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