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Ed Witten (edit)

Revision as of 05:27, 26 November 2025

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|content=It is an interesting question as to who inspires us in physics. Here is a list of 20th century giants whose work inspired me that might work as protagonists with interesting stories that deserve to be considered along with the best known Einstein/Hawking/Oppenheimer/Etc.:
|content=It is an interesting question as to who inspires us in physics. Here is a list of 20th century giants whose work inspired me that might work as protagonists with interesting stories that deserve to be considered along with the best known Einstein/Hawking/Oppenheimer/Etc.:


[[CN Yang]] (with Lee and Simons)
[[CN Yang]] (with Lee and Simons)</br>
Paul Dirac  
Paul Dirac</br>
Ernst Stueckelberg
Ernst Stueckelberg</br>
Madame Wu
Madame Wu</br>
David Bohm
David Bohm</br>
Abdus Salam
Abdus Salam</br>
Ken Wilson
Ken Wilson</br>
Emmy Noether
Emmy Noether</br>
Ettore Majorana
Ettore Majorana</br>
Carlo Rubio  
Carlo Rubio</br>
Shin'ichirƍ Tomonaga  
Shin'ichirƍ Tomonaga</br>
Lev Landau
Lev Landau</br>
Simon Van der Meer
Simon Van der Meer</br>
Freeman Dyson
Freeman Dyson</br>
Julian Schwinger  
Julian Schwinger</br>
Paul Ehrenfest
Paul Ehrenfest</br>
John VonNeumann
John VonNeumann</br>
Feza Gursey
Feza Gursey</br>
Wolfgang Pauli
Wolfgang Pauli</br>
Louis and [[Ed Witten|Edward Witten]]
Louis and [[Ed Witten|Edward Witten]]</br>
Hans Bethe
Hans Bethe</br>
George Sudarshan  
George Sudarshan</br>
Vera Rubin
Vera Rubin</br>
Gerard 't Hooft  
Gerard 't Hooft  


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=== 2024 ===


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{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1855292957630595421
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=Are you also watching the brain trust of tbe Democratic Party who lost this election, now trying to figure out HOW they could possibly have lost this election?
 
As a highly visible Democrat who never thought this was going to be close or a “nail biter”, and who said publicly that the the polls were off and that there was reason to think that preference falsification could result in a *landslide*, do you think anyone would pick up the phone and call? There is zero interest. Not one intern. Not one consultant.
 
This is exactly like String Theory. For 40 years string theorists have hermetically sealed themselves in an imaginary universe where they are succeeding because they became the arbiters in a system called Peer Review. The Lords/Peers of String Theory do not talk with, and do not listen to commoners. As a result they enter into a curricular conversation.
 
Listening to what @maddow has to say about @KamalaHarris’ part in  @SpeakerPelosi’s brilliant strategy with @PeteButtigieg to help @SenSchumer after @donlemon’s insightful analysis mirroring Joy @thereidout brutal truths following the @NPR @cnn exposes of Trumps devious plans is exactly the String theory vibe.
 
What does Cumrun say about Andy’s latest idea to build on Lenny’s insight to get around Eva’s paper showing that Ashok’s plan to use Juan’s discovery that Brian and Michio discussed recently  on the 13th anniversary of Shamit’s paper tweaking David’s original epiphany, can only work if some speculations of Cumrun are true to begin with in Euclidean signature?
 
Oh and by the way, there are no other approaches beyond [[String Theory]], because anyone not part of this circle is a self promoter saying “only words”. We will only need another 100 years before it gives fruit

 
Well, this is what a cult sounds like. Communists build such elaborate circular worlds of internal references. As do members of spiritual, academic and religious orders.
 
My claim is that the Democratic leadership is a lucrative cult. It’s not a party. It’s not trying to win. It’s trying to serve its members and work towards winning as little as possible, consistent with first serving the personal needs of its senior leadership. It’s trying to pay its leadership in riches, prestige and control. It’s a payout system. What are all these people making financially? I don’t know. Nancy does alright. So does Rachel. But not all payment is monetary.
 
That is why their conversation is so bizarre. They need to fire each other. But the entire point of our party as they see it is to serve as a trough.
 
Take it from a pre-Dick Morris Democrat also focused on physics: the 1992 election 32 years ago brought us this madness in just the way that [[Ed Witten]], Michael Green and John Schwarz brought us The Holy Revelation of [[String Theory]] 40 years ago in 1984.
 
The most important part of these cults is sealing out the critics as “interloping self promoting grifting charlatans.”
 
I wound love to come on MSNBC and discuss my pre-election claims that this was unlikely to be close and quite possibly a landslide. I would love to help the party fire its senior leadership. It is well past time to overthrow the party’s brain trust that leads us away from focusing on the welfare of working families, free speech, individualistic  greatness, common sense, consumer protection, fair play, and into the arms of evil and madness.
 
The Clinton-Morris era needs to end. We need a revolt to overthrow our Lords and Masters. There is now no reason these people should be at the helm.
 
None.
 
🙏
|timestamp=4:54 PM · Nov 9, 2024
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=== 2025 ===
 
{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1912162744863961364
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=I took your point. For some reason my point doesn’t seem to get through.
 
I agree with you. He *could* make a strong statement to admit defeat. There are clear reasons not to do this from the ST perspective. It is thus unlikely.
 
My point was that he could do something *vastly* less expensive. And the fact that Susskind, Witten, Greene, etc won’t do even that tells us that this isn’t about string theory. It’s about no other theories or theorist being worth considering. It’s abuse of the referee role.
 
Somehow, the String Theorists set themselves up as a football team that is also the *sole* source of game referees.
 
So even when their team loses on the field,  they still win by referees decision that they are the only real team competing. Everyone else focuses on whether they have background independence, particle predictions or a renormalizable spin 2 quantization. That is a total red herring.
 
Sabine: Theoretical physics isn’t this dumb or anti-scientific. It’s impossible. [[The Only Game in Town (TOGIT)|“The only game in town”]] campaign is not a string theoretic idea. It is totally foreign to science.
 
Something separate doesn’t want rival theories side by side. In a science we would all be expected to listen to each other. This is what my first memories of physics looked like 1983-1988. There were different ideas. Nothing like this.
 
The defining feature of [[String Theory]] is that it would rather fundamental physics die than that [[String Theory]] face healthy adult rivals that were not maimed, crippled, stolen, or murdered in their cribs.
|thread=
{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1911991840204898751
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=People ask me how you can tell whether scientific experts are leveling with them if the lay public doesn’t understand deep science.
 
Here an interviewer asks a leading String Theorist how things are going after 25 years since popularizing String theory in a well received book:
|timestamp=3:55 AM · Apr 15, 2025
|media1=ERW-X-post-1911991840204898751-fZpX01IiyHtcrtY5.jpg
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{{Tweet
|image=skdh-profile.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/skdh/status/1912022194395467852
|name=Sabine Hossenfelder
|usernameurl=https://x.com/skdh
|username=skdh
|content=If Brian Greene publicly said he doesn't believe in string theory anymore it'd be the end of the field. He'd ruin the lives of thousands of people. Even if it was what he thinks, I strongly doubt he'd ever admit it.
|timestamp=5:46 AM · Apr 15, 2025
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{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1912032953896673603
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=The issue isn’t [[String Theory]] which has obviously failed in the terms it set for itself.
 
The issue is the [[The Only Game in Town (TOGIT)|“String Theory is the only game in town”]] which appears designed to destroy fundamental physics itself. If you have spent 40 years bragging and failing, wouldn’t you at least ask “Doesn’t anyone have any other ideas?” before finally going over the edge of the cliff?
 
<nowiki>*</nowiki>Absolutely* not. And that tells you that string theory isn’t a theory. It’s some kind of a suicide pact. Better that the field die than we ask “What if the string theorists were always wrong including pronouncements about [[Quantum Gravity|quantum gravity]] and against other theorists? What if [[The Only Game in Town (TOGIT)|‘the only game in town’]] was always an obviously totally unethical anti-scientific move to destroy and poison the market place of ideas?”
 
cc: @bgreene.
|timestamp=6:39 AM · Apr 15, 2025
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{{Tweet
|image=skdh-profile.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/skdh/status/1912102850513023326
|name=Sabine Hossenfelder
|usernameurl=https://x.com/skdh
|username=skdh
|content=Yes, but that wasn't my point. My point is that Brian is a highly visible string spokesperson, I'd say second after Witten, but Witten doesn't talk much. If Brian were to renounce string theory, he'd be responsible for killing the careers of thousands of people, and he must know that. I am just saying I think it's unlikely he would do it, even if he had stopped believing it makes sense, and you need to factor this in when evaluating what he says.
|timestamp=11:16 AM · Apr 15, 2025
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|timestamp=3:14 PM · Apr 15, 2025
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