Even if it were testable, and the test failed to validate string theory, I don't think that would convince string theorists one way or another. Strings are a de facto religion within physics.
This line of talk is way overplayed. Like people who have an enthusiast amount of knowledge follow a few people who have professional knowledge who are just unreasonably fixated on what other physicists pursue.
Doubt and questioning are a part of science but this "religion" meme about string theory et al is silly. If you're really upset that somebody is pursuing something is a blind alley, go ahead and do some physics that shows results, otherwise I really wish people would tone the unhelpful criticisms down.
I agree. If every physicist quit string theory because we haven’t thought of a way to test it, like what @ravenstein might want, then that would be a sad day.
I don’t see the problem with physicists working on or even promoting string theory.
I am not a physicist, but what I have read from critics (badly paraphrased):
During the hype phase of string theory, every major university wanted to get in on the game, and devoted large amounts of funding towards hiring researchers with a background in string theory. If you weren't one of those people, you were at a severe disadvantage, and might not get hired at all.
String theory hovered up tons of cash in university budgets, and majorly fucked over a lot of careers. The result of all this money has been no actual scientifically proven results despite decades of research.
> devoted large amounts of funding towards hiring researchers with a background in string theory. If you weren't one of those people, you were at a severe disadvantage, and might not get hired at all.
> String theory hovered up tons of cash in university budgets, and majorly fucked over a lot of careers.
This is pretty misleading. An argument could be made - though I'm not necessarily endorsing it - that string theory has crowded out other quantum gravity research programs in the last few decades. But quantum gravity is a small and poorly funded subfield: we're talking about no more than a few hundred people total in the US, fighting over one medium-sized experiment worth of grant money. None of it makes any difference to the overwhelming majority of physicists.
I don't think string theorists are being unreasonable by not having changed their minds yet, given that no evidence has come out one way or the other.
I don't think we can extrapolate from "string theorists didn't update when presented with no evidence" to "string theorists won't update when presented with evidence".
I think it’s a human thing and every generation has to deal with the fanatics or believers or whatever you want to call it of their time.
We’re in a time where a great number of people are extremely religious without having any idea they are. The people that live by what their screen tells them. If you didn’t see some of this in the last three years that there is religion without it being labeled as such, I don’t know I’ll be able to reach you now.
We all live by what our screens tell us. We don't know anything outside of our own direct experience without depending on others. And for the most part we choose to trust others and it usually works out ok. That's not religion - that's an efficient way to intake information about the world, because an individual doesn't have the resources to learn about everything or go every place. If someone abuses our trust, then it's not a problem with the delivery method, it's a problem with them. So the fact that we get a lot of information via a screen is irrelevant.
Though I'm not sure what that has to do with the notion that bad ideas only die when the people who hold them die.
I'm not sure what you're trying to say and I wouldn't go that far. But it's pretty straightforward to say, yes, older people like change less than younger people, even if they aren't fanatics.
Doubt and questioning are a part of science but this "religion" meme about string theory et al is silly. If you're really upset that somebody is pursuing something is a blind alley, go ahead and do some physics that shows results, otherwise I really wish people would tone the unhelpful criticisms down.