[lit-ideas] Science as Aesthetics?
- From: Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 08 May 2009 16:30:22 -0400
This offered as riposte to Donal.
To verify superstring theory, it would require a
superconducting supercollider about 1,000 light
years long. (The solar system itself is about 1
light year across.)
Yet physicists like Witten argue that superstring
theory is mathematically beautiful and so must be
true. If an untestable theory must be judged by
its mathematical beauty, doesn't that make physics
-- or superstring physics anyway -- a branch of
aesthetics?
All the best,
Eric
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