Both the Templeton Foundation and the Foundational Question Institute fund research on the theory of everything. Well, they say so. But they don't. In fact, less than 3% of their funds go into projects that actually search for a TOE!
Why are they unable to keep their promise and follow their mission? Because of the referees of grant applications. Anonymous referees are not courageous, they are cowards. TOE projects do not get positive referee reports. So they do not get funds.
In normal words, most referees are corrupt.
How do you fight corruption? With courage. With women. With courageous, outspoken women. Get women referees! Get courageous referees!
Look closely: male physics in the US, Canada, Europe, Latin America, Africa, Oceania and Asia is corrupt. As referees, we either need physicists from Antarctica, or we need women.
How would you recognize a good project when you saw it? You cannot do it. Nobody can. That is the honest answer.
ReplyDeleteAll you can do is assess the rigour, diligence, and honesty with which a project has been carried out to that point.
So...
lack of rigour -- no funding
sloppiness, inattention to detail -- no funding
wishful thinking, unsubstantiated claims -- no funding
...even though it could turn out in the end that the project had been on the right track after all.
That's not corruption. It's just tough.
But the present is corruption, because string theory gets funded; so does most of quantum gravity. Both have lack of rigour and unsubstantiated claims.
ReplyDeleteAnd there are enough people who could recognize a good project when they saw one.
String theory lacks rigour? I didn't know that. If it doesn't have rigour, then what DOES it have?
ReplyDeleteExperimental confirmation? No.
Testable predictions? No.
Explanations for existing puzzles? No.
Discovery of connections among existing concepts that were not previously suspected? No.
Is it really no more than a bunch of ideas that some clever people happened to find attractive -- even after all this time?
Yes.
ReplyDelete