Dr Faustus of Modern Physics - Department of Speech, Music and ...

17.2. WHAT ARE MODERN PHYSICISTS SAYING? 79
the 20th century that the equations that work have inner harmony. (Ed
Witten)
• Even before string theory, especially as physics developed in the 20th
century, it turned out that the equations that really work in describing
nature with the most generality and the greatest simplicity are very
elegant and subtle. (Ed Witten)
• On the other hand, we don’t understand the theory too completely, and
because of this fuzziness of space-time, the very concept of space-time
and spacetime dimensions isn’t precisely defined. (Ed Witten)
• In physics, your solution should convince a reasonable person. In math,
you have to convince a person who’s trying to make trouble. Ultimately,
in physics, you’re hoping to convince Nature. And I’ve found Nature
to be pretty reasonable. (Frank Wilczek)
• For more than ten years, my theory was in limbo. Then, finally, in the
late 1980s, physicists at Princeton said, ’There’s nothing wrong with
this theory. It’s the only one that works, and we have to open out
minds to hyperspace.’ We weren’t destined to discover this theory for
another 100 years because it’s so bizarre, so different from everything
we’d been doing. We didn’t use the normal sequence of discoveries to
get to it. (Michio Kaku in Voices of Truth by Nina L. Diamond (2000),
Describing reaction to his superstring theory of hyperspace which mathematically
relates the universe’s basic forces).
• There are 60 sub-atomic particles they’ve discovered that can explain the
thousands of other sub-atomic particles, and the model is too ugly. This
is my analogy: it’s like taking Scotch tape and taping a giraffe to a mule
to a whale to a tiger and saying this is the ultimate theory of particles.
... We have so many particles that Oppenheimer once said you could
give a Nobel Prize to the physicist that did not discover a particle that
year. We were drowning in sub-atomic particles. Now we realize that
this whole zoo of sub-atomic particles, thousands of them coming out of
our accelerators, can be explained by little vibrating strings. (Michio
Kaku)
• The theory (string theory) is safe, permanently safe. I ask you, is that
a theory of physics or a philosophy? (Sheldon Glashow)