Hossenfelder: It is not possible for each and every one of us to redo all experiments in the history of science. It therefore becomes increasingly important that scientists provide evidence for how science works, so that people who cannot follow the research itself can instead rely on evidence that the system produces correct and useful descriptions of nature.
Tag: Sabine Hossenfelder
A Universal Mind is a reasonable idea, says Bernardo Kastrup
One reason that science media are respectful of cosmopsychism may be growing awareness of the problems with strict materialism, naturalism, or physicalism: As Michael Egnor has noted, “How can you have a proposition that the mind doesn’t exist? That means propositions don’t exist and that means that you don’t have a proposition.”
Sabine Hossenfelder: Einstein’s greatest legacy was the thought experiment
She notes that one needs evidence from real experiments to demonstrate that the outcome of a thought experiment is real. But it is significant that the human mind is capable of developing the basis for momentous discoveries even before we commit to stuff that requires a budget.
Sabine Hossenfelder asks: Do we need a theory of everything?
Hossenfelder: So this whole idea of a theory of everything is based on an unscientific premise. Some people would like the laws of nature to be pretty in a very specific way… This is simply not a good strategy to develop scientific theories, and no, it is most certainly not standard methodology.
Science vs pseudoscience? – Sabine Hossenfelder edition
Why do people like Hossenfelder feel they need to honor Darwinism’s rotting carcass?
Sabine Hossenfelder says predictions are overrated; Rob Sheldon responds
Sheldon: … ironically, most of Sabine’s blogs are about the poor predictive power in particle theory, but in this blog she feels she has to reverse herself to defend the good name of global warming. My advice to her is to stick with what she has first-hand knowledge of, because 2nd-hand knowledge always suffers from authoritarian bias.
Rob Sheldon on dark energy: Does it exist?
Sheldon, our physics color commentator, writes to say, “I’ve mentioned before that Subir Sarkar at Oxford has questioned the existence of “dark energy” and by implication, the award of the 2011 Nobel prize. Sabine Hossenfelder’s blog links to a 7 minute summary of the Nobel prize and Sarkar’s work: But even more compelling is her Read More…
Sabine Hossenfelder slams panpsychism
Electrons cannot be conscious Sabine Hossenfelder’s view because they cannot change their behavior. Hossenfelder’s impatience is understandable but she underestimates the seriousness of the problem serious thinkers about consciousness confront.
Sabine Hossenfelder asks: Does nature have a minimal length? Could it point to a final theory?
Hossenfelder: What does this all mean? Well, it means that we might be close to finding a final theory, one that describes nature at its most fundamental level and there is nothing more beyond that. That is possible, but. Remember that the arguments for the existence of a minimal length rest on extrapolating 16 orders magnitude below the distances what we have tested so far. That’s a lot. That extrapolation might just be wrong.
Let us now praise normal science: Chad Orzel responds to Sabine Hossenfelder
As Chad Orzel explains, he considers Sabine Hossenfelder’s dismissal of much current physics “a little too sweeping.” A lot happened in the dull years.
Sabine Hossenfelder makes it to Slashdot
Hossenfelder: What we have here in the foundation of physics is a plain failure of the scientific method. All these wrong predictions should have taught physicists that just because they can write down equations for something does not mean this math is a scientifically promising hypothesis.
Ethan Siegel asks at Forbes, Did God create the universe?
Siegel makes an interesting comparison with, say, Sabine Hossenfelder. He does great graphics but to say that he is not a deep thinker is to shower him with imprudent praise. By contrast, we go on listening to Hossenfelder with great interest, whether the graphics are good or not.
Sabine Hossenfelder proposes superdeterminism” to replace quantum mechanics
Because quantum mechanics “lacks a physical description of the measurement process. The open-access paper seems easy to read.
Physicist spars with science writer over whether the laws of physics are inevitable
Of course, neither Wolchover nor Hossenfelder would be allowed to notice that design in nature is obvious but not inevitable.
Sabine Hossenfelder on why the Anthropic Principle is controversial
It’s controversial because it is sometimes used to support the idea of a multiverse. Otherwise, it should be common sense to assume that a venue in which we exist must feature conditions that allow for that. But the multiverse does not need logic, evidence, or science.