The History of Physics

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A classic example right now in modern physics would be what happened at the Big Bang. We have more than one theory that can fit the data, but we haven't yet figured out which is right. What happened at the moment of the Big Bang is something we have no understanding about. The universe basically is locally in thermal equilibrium as it expands and cools over 14 billion years.

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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