Quantum Gravity

2016

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

I find it peculiar how many theorists want to explain just how things work in "Quantum Gravity."

Given, y'know, the absence of such a thy.

6:02 PM · Aug 21, 2016

2019

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

There is an interesting story I don’t know well enough. Many will recall the phrase “Unified Field Theory” as the hoped for ‘Theory of Everything.’ At some point this got replaced by “Quantum Gravity” as the goal. Does anyone know the full story behind this? Was it ‘70s? And how?

6:31 AM · Feb 17, 2019

Nautilus Magazine

@NautilusMag

Theoretical physicists have known since the 1930s that quantum gravity is necessary to bring order into the laws of nature, writes @skdh, but 80 years on, a solution isn’t anywhere in sight. http://bit.ly/break-gravity

12:00 PM · Feb 16, 2019

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

Ok. This is a weird take. The reluctance to engage foundations of quantum mechanics stemmed from the fact that it was far less generative than research in quantum field thy for decades. When Standard Model QFT stagnated & Quantum Gravity stumbled, the opportunity cost decreased.

10:09 PM · Sep 8, 2019

Sean Carroll

@seanmcarroll

Shots fired! "Even Physicists Don’t Understand Quantum Mechanics. Worse, they don’t seem to want to understand it." -- me, in the New York Times @nytopinion #SomethingDeeply

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/07/opinion/sunday/quantum-physics.html

3:19 PM · Sep 8, 2019

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

Does anyone know what @elonmusk thinks about the state of fundamental physics, unification, quantum gravity and the impact any such progress may have on humanity’s chance for survival? I realize that I’ve never heard him connect fundamental physics progress to plans for humanity.

3:50 AM · Oct 8, 2019

2021

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

By mumbling “Quantum Gravity” every 2 minutes as a mantra and recasting actual High Energy Physics as “Phenomenology” they mis-educated an entire generation to think “toy physics” was real physics. It’s unbelievable.

Toy physics is real geometry & topology. But it ain’t physics.

4:06 PM · Apr 22, 2021

2022

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

Physics in 1980: “I’m trying to grasp why nature has 3 generations of chiral fermions with SU(3)xSU(2)xU(1) internal symmetry.”

Physics Today: “Remind me again what the internal quantum numbers are? I do quantum gravity so it’s not something I’ve worked with since my QFT class.”

3:24 PM · Aug 24, 2022

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

I met this rot first in “Quantum Gravity”

Then in “Neo-Classical Economics”

Then in “Scientific Manpower Theory”

To hear it in virology with MILLIONS dead? Totally mind blowing.

Take back science, by any means necessary. It is now a matter of survival: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtfIIG8iYIk

5:52 PM · Oct 10, 2022

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

Instantly stop all progress in the world’s most successful scientific community using only two words inducing permanent paralytic failure that cannot be questioned.

I’ll go first: “Quantum Gravity”

3:26 PM · Nov 7, 2022

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

Quantum Gravity is a 69 year long slow-motion suicide pact. Can we discuss it? No we cannot. That would require discussing its modern origins in 1953 and 1957.

It is, by now, too big to fail. It is not even the elephant in the room. It’s the blue whale in physics’ linen closet.

3:42 PM · Nov 7, 2022

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

@dingobabyboy Subsumed by Quantum Gravity.

3:48 PM · Nov 7, 2022

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

@CurtM2566 You are being distracted then. Focus on Quantum Gravity. Entanglement is real.

4:06 PM · Nov 7, 2022

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

@skdh I caution that you not fall into the trap of using Beauty as critique.

The abuse of Beauty in String Theory and Quantum Gravity more generally is valid as a target.

Critiquing the use of beauty, by contrast is a suicide mission. And I don’t want to see you on it. As a friend.

5:19 PM · Nov 7, 2022

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

Either way, it’s a big deal. Everything changed in the early 70s. It’s impossible to say how much. The moment the Mansfield amendment came in, physics began to stagnate. And “Quantum Gravity” destroyed our culture of science. We don’t even whisper about its “Anti-Gravity” origin.

4:13 PM · Nov 10, 2022

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

I don’t think there is any history of my ever commenting on @SBF_FTX.

It is because I never deeply understood what was going on when it was explained to me. I’m not going to lie: I felt dumb.

Moral: be very careful celebrating success that you don’t understand for its own sake.

4:31 PM · Nov 12, 2022

SBF

@SBF_FTX

2) I'm really sorry, again, that we ended up here.

Hopefully things can find a way to recover. Hopefully this can bring some amount of transparency, trust, and governance to them.

Ultimately hopefully it can be better for customers.

4:31 PM · Nov 12, 2022

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

Other things that made/make me feel dumb:

Bernie Madoff’s Returns
COVID origin questions = Racism
Fauci
Hilary’s Inevitability
Quantum Gravity
Jeffrey Epstein’s CCY trading Claims
CPI Construction
UFO/UAP
Chinese Graduate Students in STEM
Open Borders
Defund The Police
DEI
NIH

4:46 PM · Nov 12, 2022

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

What specific Quantum Gravity theory do you imagine has now been openned up for testing? Are these your words, and, if not, do you know what they mean?

I do not:

"dynamics expected from crossing a traversable wormhole, opening up possibilities to test quantum gravity theories."

1:05 AM · Dec 2, 2022

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

Not trying to be difficult, but this sounds like an enormous announcement from Google as I assume you mean it to be as a CEO....and I don't get what is really being claimed in testing quantum gravity. Thx.

1:09 AM · Dec 2, 2022

2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

Today May be Considered the 50 year Anniversary of the Stagnation of Particle Physics.

Today Feb 1 marks the appearance of Kobayashi & Maskawa's englargment of the Cabibo Angle to the three generation 3x3 CKM matrix.

That should be cause for celebration. So let us celebrate!

7:53 AM · Feb 2, 2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

Unfortunately, it also marks the end of what we can be certain actually is physics.

Imagine if Elton John's "Crocodile Rock" was still the #1 song on Billboard's Hot 100 & Tony Orlando and Dawn were singing "Tie a Yellow Ribbon". That, in a nutshell, is fundamental phsyics.

7:53 AM · Feb 2, 2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

To be clear, It is not as if there are no Nobel Laureates recognized for fundamental discoveries in particle theory left. I believe we are down to the last 8. Half of them are in their 70s. One in his 80s. Three are nongenarians. Yes. It's that bad. And we're not honest about it.

7:53 AM · Feb 2, 2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

When you hear about "Peer Review" in this field, you have to understand that the field stopped working. Without nature telling us, we don't actually know who the physicists are any more. We have no idea who is a fundamental physicist. All we know is that what we do doesn't work.

7:53 AM · Feb 2, 2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

So I am celebrating today by pointing out the obvious: maybe it isn't a good idea to have people who haven't made contact with actual fundamental physics telling everyone else what they must and must not do to be members of a club that no longer works according to normal science.

7:53 AM · Feb 2, 2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

What fundamental physics really is, is (approximately) captured by the table below. In short, if someone is below the age of 70, they may have proven their brilliance and mathematical ability, but they have not proven any ability to make contact with reality as theorists.

7:53 AM · Feb 2, 2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

I will point out that our experimentalists are in FAR better shape. The massive nature of neutrinos, discovery of gravitational waves, the Higgs field, Intermediate Vector Bosons, Accelerating Expansion of the Universe/Dark Energy are all major successes over the last 50 years.

7:53 AM · Feb 2, 2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

So what went wrong? I will be talking about my understanding of the stagnation this year at a different level. But the single greatest threat to fundamental physics in my estimation is something called "Quantum Gravity" which was really born 70 years ago around 1953.

7:53 AM · Feb 2, 2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

To put it bluntly, it is not just that Quantum Gravity doesn't work. It's that you can't comfortably question Quatnum Gravity because the failed investment is on a scale that I think is difficult for us to contemplate. It includes StringTheory, Loop Quantum Gravity, AdS/CFT etc.

7:53 AM · Feb 2, 2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

Next Year, will be 40 years of failure for modern StringTheory to ship a product. To be clear and STEELMAN the argument for strings, it *is* a remarkable framework. It is REAL math. It teaches us things no other framework has.

But, it *destroyed* the culture of honest physics.

7:53 AM · Feb 2, 2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

We spent almost 80% of this time being told that ST was a 'Piece of 21st Century Physics that fell into the 20th Century.'

Uh. Bullshit. That is an excuse. It's not clear that it's physics at all.

It's a "Failed piece of 20th Century Physics still hanging around in the 21stC".

7:53 AM · Feb 2, 2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

It is time to hold conferences dedicated to the issues of groupthink in physics. Why wont our leading voices admit failure? We don't know. Previous generations wanted their students to succeed. But String Theory is dominated by boomers who seem oblivious to danger.

7:53 AM · Feb 2, 2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

If we're going to truly wrestle w/ dark matter, or dark energy, or UAP that supposedly violate our laws of physics (e.g. General Relativity) we can't afford a leaders projecting their fears that THEY have wasted their lives, credibility and students careers on "Quantum Gravity".

7:53 AM · Feb 2, 2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

So by all means, let's celebrate. But it is time to ask new voices for wild, dangerous and irresponsible ideas. Peer review failed. Quantum Gravity Failed. Community norms failed. And soon there will be NO ONE LEFT proven to be able to play this game. So what do we do?

7:53 AM · Feb 2, 2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

We need to spend perhaps 5yrs asking "If the leaders have not succeeded for FIVE DECADES in moving beyond the Standard Model, then why are they leading this field and directing the resources, research, and path forward? What if we listened to those who the leadership push aside?"

7:53 AM · Feb 2, 2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

As someone who has tried to ask this question, I can tell you that mostly the big programs have granted themselves a science equivalent of 'dipolmatic immunity' from the standards they impose on their intellectual competitors. But from today forward, we must end that game.

7:53 AM · Feb 2, 2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

Let's put resources in new avenues, theories and theorists that have yet to fail. The next time you hear a theorist telling you about quantum gravity, the multiverse or String theory or Loops or Supersymmetry or AdS/CFT, etc. Ask them the following dangerous question:

7:53 AM · Feb 2, 2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

"If you haven't succeeded in 50-70 years, what other theories would be viable if we relaxed the standards you have imposed on your competitors given that your theories do not seem to work? What if your Quantum Gravity were subjected to such standards? Would QG be quackery?"🙏

7:53 AM · Feb 2, 2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

Let's honor those who tried before by bringing the same energy they once brought to the attempt to learn our place in the universe. Happy to be corrected. But this is an emergency if we're ever going to go beyond chemical rockets and use physics to take our place among the stars.

8:00 AM · Feb 2, 2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

"I remember when rock was young...🎶"

Let's get that energy back, by any means necessary.

8:09 AM · Feb 2, 2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

Now I feel completely alone.

I want our wanting out of this story. I have a huge dog in this fight. I spend every day fighting my own human desire for GU to be proven correct.

I believe this is how String Theorists stopped being scientists.

I just want our data & the physics.

Sabine Hossenfelder

@skdh

I want this to be real. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/06/whistleblower-ufo-alien-tech-spacecraft

4:36 AM · Jun 7, 2023

1:44 PM · Jun 7, 2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

If biological aliens were here from others star systems in crafts that defy the current physics of the standard model and, more importantly, general relativity, I would be one of the few people who would have a guess on day one as to how they must have gotten here. It’s tempting.

1:44 PM · Jun 7, 2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

I don’t think biological interstellar alien visitors using GR and the SM make much sense. So I try to have a war *inside* my own mind as to what is true. I have a genuine “Need to Know” as to whether this is BS NatSec space opera disinformation theater. Because to me, it is data.

1:44 PM · Jun 7, 2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

What just happened isn’t data. It’s that a sober individual just pushed one of the many longstanding highly conserved NHI narratives collected from *many* diverse sober NatSec informants over the sworn testimony line. And it gets a LOT crazier from here. But it’s not science yet.

1:44 PM · Jun 7, 2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

As I‘ve been saying, there is so much deliberate NatSec BS out here that our own scientists are being propagandized. We’re drilling holes in our own scientists’ lifeboat. Last time we saw this it was virologists/immunologists/epidemiologists being gaslit. Now it’s physicists.

1:44 PM · Jun 7, 2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

Let me be very careful in what I am about to say. We have at least the appearance and optics of scientific self-sabotage. And wanting things to be true is how science dies.

I fight like hell to promote my theory. But I’d sign on to another to know the truth if I was wrong.

1:44 PM · Jun 7, 2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

We may be looking at the birth of a new UFO religion. Or a moment of contact. Or a long running Disinformation campaign. Etc.

To go beyond GR, let’s be scientists & get NatSec out of our data first. Where is our data pruned of space opera disinformation and cultic religiosity?

1:44 PM · Jun 7, 2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

What I want to know:

Why was the Mansfield Amendment passed?

Why did NSF fake a labor shortage in our MARKET economy destroying American STEM labor markets?

What stopped the Golden Age Of General Relativity?

Why was the SSC really cancelled?

StringTheory & STAGNATION: WTF?

1:44 PM · Jun 7, 2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

What the hell was the 1957 Behnson funded UNC Chapel Hill conference actually about?

Why are we not stopping to QUESTION quantum gravity after 70 years of public *FAILURE* inspired by Babson-Behnson patronage of RIAS, the Institute of Field Physics and the precursor to Lockheed?

1:44 PM · Jun 7, 2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

This is the 50th year of stagnation in the Standard Model Lagrangian. It is AS IF we are deliberately trying to forget how to do actual physics. Everyone who has succeeded in Particle Theory in standard terms is now over 70. This is insane. In 25 years there will be no one left.

1:44 PM · Jun 7, 2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

Why are we not admitting that quantum gravity is killing physics and is the public respectable face of 1950s anti-gravity mania that lives on to murder all new theories in their cradle?

Quantum Gravity is fake and works to stop actual physics.

There. I said it. Now let’s talk.

1:44 PM · Jun 7, 2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

If you want to know whether there are biological interstellar visitors here observing us, the short answer is “Almost *certainly* not if they are using our current stagnant non-progressing theories of physics.”

Let’s finally get serious about this whacky subject? Thanks. 🙏

1:44 PM · Jun 7, 2023

Sabine Hossenfelder

@skdh

I swear I didn't write my tweet to make you feel alone and I'm genuinely sorry if that was the result. That said, I think it's better to acknowledge one's hopes and desires than to pretend they don't exist and thereby overestimate one's own rationality.

8:26 AM · Jun 9, 2023

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

@skdh I acknowledge my desires as you see from what I wrote. But a stagnant community always wants outcomes. It wants SUSY. Or Strings. Or some g-2 muon anomaly. Etc.

I want too. But what I want is mostly just a desire to get the BS out of physics so we can get back to succeeding.

3:40 PM · Jun 9, 2023

Related Pages

• Peer Injunction
• Peer Review
• Standard Model
• String Theory
• Theory of Geometric Unity

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