The Invariance of Complex Numbers

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The electric field doesn't know what components I've set up, it doesn't care. At every point in space, I can separately rotate the real part and the imaginary part of the electron field. The theory as a whole is physically unaffected by it. It says that I'm picking at a point right in front of my nose right now,. again, you can't see it, but imagine a point in space.

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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