To people looking in from the outside, I hope an accurate picture comes across: there is a widespread feeling that string theory is the best hope for a quantum theory of gravity, but it’s not a settled issue, and we’re working in good faith on moving forward. But it’s healthy disagreement among professionals working at the edge of what we know and don’t know - not politically-motivated intervention from people who have no clue, just an agenda, and operate completely apart from the scientific mainstream. When people like Peter (or Lee Smolin) read these tea leaves, they come to a different conclusion than most scientists in the field.
This judgement comes from looking at various pieces of information - what we know about gravitation, and quantum mechanics, and particle physics, and the history of ideas in physics, and the mathematical structures underlying gauge theory and general relativity, as well as an intuitive feeling for what principles are most important and what clues most worth pursuing - and deciding which path toward progress is likely to be fruitful. String theory is far and away the leading candidate, but its status as leader is a reflection of the educated judgement of the experts, not any airtight evidence.
The fact is, we don’t know what is the correct theory that unifies particle physics with gravitation. The whole discussion is a nice contrast with the Intelligent Design mess. (Sometimes more than others, but that’s a matter of personal opinion.)
But his objections are not crazy, and his dislike for the theory is grounded in an informed scientific judgement. I completely disagree with Peter’s opinions about string theory, and think that his accusations that the Landscape is non-scientific are completely off the mark. The famous 20th-century physicist Wolfgang Pauli had actually come up with a phrase once that summed it up succinctly.Peter Woit, noted blogger and string-theory gadfly, has written a book about his objections to string theory: Not Even Wrong, to be published next year by Jonathan Cape. What can one say when a group of people takes an atom bomb that is equivalent of 20,000 tonnes of explosive TNT and drops it on acity with the result that those at ground zero get instantly vaporised out of existence? On occasion, however - not uncommon in human history -the boundary between not right and wrong becomes extremely attenuated. To the combined list today, we can add paedophilia, serial murder, rape, arson, plunder and, after the two World Wars, genocide. Closer to home, things are more complex, but we still know the difference between good and bad deeds of dharma. In the Abrahamic religions, it could be something as simple as committing one of the seven deadly sins or breaking any of the 10 commandments.
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