Paul Ginsparg
This is an excellent question. Think of this as the âGood Will Hunting Problemâ.
I tried uploading to arxiv way back when. They told me that my email address wasnât a current university address and I could only upload with endorsement from a university or its representative.
https://x.com/swordloveaffai/swordloveaffair/status/1219282556631293954
On this point our detractors are more correct than our supporters: our ambitions at The Portal are nearly delusional.
The main goal of The Portal is to âSlip the DISCâ. Anywhere institutions (like Universities) set up an intellectual caste system via bottlenecking, weâll engage.
To your question: can that Bangladeshi Genius kid get on the Arxiv if she is from some Jute farm in the delta without an endorsement?
https://arxiv.org/help/endorseme
And why if the Arxiv is open does it discriminate against the blogs of string theory critics???
I grant freely that the arxiv is the absolute best part of the DISC. But it is still suppressing ideas & enforcing a caste system. It is the most progressive part of our regressive system (I was offered a full endorsement exemption from its founder Paul Ginsparg). But DISC it is.
Iâm enough of a hypocrite that I reserve rights to use it. But Iâll be making demands of it too. Peter Woit is a physicist who is treated by the arxiv as an âinternet personalityâ yet runs the most read physics blog. I demand that they fully explain their history suppressing him.
Thanks for asking that question. Our goal is to save the Arxiv from being part of the DISC. Its soul is with the rebels. And Paul Ginsparg is oddly an early hero of the revolution despite my issues with the Arxiv and its administration. đ
@mike_usher I donât fully disagree. Letâs put it this way, the arxiv probably did more good than harm so Iâve been reluctant to discuss its issues. It is also part of a complex and that complex is the issue. It isnât right to discuss it in isolation. It is part of an ecosystem.
I'm going to explain how profound levels of dissent in physics are driven out of the community.
Q: "Why avoid the arXiv? That isn't peer reviewed or even moderated! Anyone can put anything on it!"
A: "Unmoderated?? The old P. Ginsparg Los Alamos National Labs server? Who knew!"
No researcher can afford to lose access to the arXiv. And no one talking openly about the actual Quantum Gravity mass delusion can have access to the journals & arXIv.
You cannot challenge the QG narrative from the inside; its achievement is that it finally made physics *safe*.
[The field of fundamental physics stagnates in â73 when our Lagrangians stop changing.]
I understand your frustration, but I think it's somewhat misdirected. The arXiv needs some sort of screening. But they have little money and not enough people. I think they're trying to do the best they can.
@skdh I assume we are both familiar with how some of our mutual Physics/Math PhD colleagues have been treated at arXiv for being deeply off the Quantum Gravity narrative? I think they could stop treating those people differently from everyone else.
This article is a stub. You can help us by editing this page and expanding it.