Intellectual Keep-Away
Intellectual Keep-Away, n: A game where those gate-keeping institutional narratives refuse to acknowledge superior intellect debunking them. https://x.com/annpettifor/status/922054160769601536
Discussion of the future of theoretical physics seems like a game of "Intellectual Keepaway."
Its the same group of mandarins who predicted LHC SuperSymmetry, Mini-Black holes, SU(5) Grand Unification, String Theory, Q-Gravity would work.
What do our *heretics* say instead?
Past ACP President Michael Turner and Maria Spiropulu in conversation with @overbye of @nytimes discuss the future of Physics! #physics #particlephysics #spacetime #stringtheory #physicists
For the moment, let me entertain a wild idea. Truly wild.
Here goes. What if the problem is our leadership. What if we asked
"Who believe String Theory wouldn't work?" "Who never claimed LHC SUSY was imminent?" "Who never said Proton Decay was going to be found?"
Etc.
Said differently, what if our leadership is brilliant but SPECIFICALLY untrustworthy in identifying the path forward. What if 1000 David Gross & Ed Wit1ten Keynotes setting the agenda are the problem? What if Lenny Susskind is not correct sbout non-string people wasting our time.
What if we *excluded* people who are consistently wrong about the path forward and asked:
"Are there any OTHER ideas? Not Strings. Not Loops. Not Asymptotic Safety. Not Simple Compact GUTs. Not Quantum Computing. Not Black Hole Information. Not Technicolor. Not Amplitudes."
Why is being older with a long track record of not making progress the way we select our leadership?
What if for 3 years we tried to ask: IS THERE ANYONE ELSE OUT HERE WITH OTHER IDEAS?
I know. It's stupid. It's crazy. It's self-serving. But it has been 49yrs+11Mos of this.
Look, we could just hold a conference: "Fundamental Physics: Can't *Anybody* Here Play This Game?"
David, Ed, Maria, Cumrun, Nati, Lenny, Juan, Lee etc. could be respondents giving constructive feedback. We would then at least learn why we are where we are. But this is nuts.