How can we test a Theory of Everything? - The answer of scientists vs that of sect members

How can we test a Theory of Everything? We take the theory at hand and calculate all the fundamental constants of nature, especially

• the fine structure constant (137.03), 
• the mass of all particles, as fraction of the Planck mass, 
• the other constants of the standard model,
• the constants that describe deviations from the standard model,
• the cosmological constant, 
• the constants that describe deviations from general relativity. 

Then we compare the results of our calculation with experiment. 

The answer is clear: that is how any Theory of Everything must be tested. Yes, the fine structure constant comes first. The answer is old. Sommerfeld gave this answer. Eddington gave it. Pauli gave it. Dirac gave it. Feynman gave it. There is no doubt about this answer. Any theory about fundamental physics is tested by its explanation of the fine structure constant and all the other constants.

That is the scientist's path. Of course, as usual in this world, certain researchers disagree. In particular, various theoretical physicists avoid the test with data. And they avoid the test of the fundamental constants. These researchers disagree because something funny is going on in their mind: they want to avoid negative test results.

In many researchers, the avoidance of negative results is so pervasive and so intense that they even start to question the validity of the answer just given. When researchers reach this level, they have chosen another path: they have joined a sect.

The most common sect's name is "We didn't find the TOE ourselves and we will now make it as hard as possible for you, young woman, young man, to find it either: We will confuse your ideas on the way to proceed, confuse your ideas on the aims of the TOE, confuse your ideas on how to test a TOE, lead you astray, discourage you in every step towards a TOE, and ask you permanently to join our sect." Researchers regularly leave science to join this sect. The sect offers many advantages: it provides you with many friends and ensure that you are well paid.

There are many such sects. Several ones have longer credos, more detailed and more specific. The advantages are the same.

The world is funny. But remember: this is satire.

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P.S. Let us work for a common goal: no woman should lead such a sect. Ever.

No madness

Sabine complains about the madness of theoreticians working in fundamental physics. Sabine is so sad. Sometimes she is bitter. She did her best, did not want to lie, worked hard, but did not succeed - yet.

Above all, she is disappointed about modern theory papers in fundamental physics. But some modern theories do not continue the madness and stagnation she is describing. The spaghetti model claims to reproduce both general relativity and the standard model, with no additional particles, no new forces, and also without any quantum gravity effects. Maybe a similar proposal will bring the end of stagnation, a proposal by her or by another woman. Sabine, go on! Take young women along with you.

More Spaghetti

My friend Olga told me that the spaghetti model has now appeared in print in a Russian physics journal, at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1134/S1063779619030055 ; the cheaper preprint is at Schiller's site http://www.motionmountain.net/research.html. Oh, and there are some more preprints as well.

I've not followed the spaghetti model for some time. It seems that the main ideas are still the same. Just some tangles have changed. Schiller's style is still more intuitive than exact. But even after all this time, spaghetti still taste well. It reminds me about my younger years. I still like those crazy ideas.

The central idea is still hat nature is a pot of boiling spaghetti. Particles are tangles of spaghetti. The noodles are special, though: they have no ends, cannot tear and they are really thin: their radius is the Planck length. It's more a spaghettini model, less a spaghetti model. In the preprints, I like the recurring sentence after the many predictions that are made: "If a deviation is observed, the strand conjecture is falsified."

Wikipedia, physics and men

One of my best friends, a German physics teacher, wanted to improve the wikipedia article (in German) about movement in physics. His improvements were reverted, because the German wikipedia physics editors - all are male - told him that "light does not move". This is not a joke. This did not happen in the year 800 BC, but in 2019 AD.

Then my friend provided the text of Einstein's 1905 paper on relativity, where the second principle states "Light always moves .... with velocity V". He also told them that Maxwell's equations are equations of motion of the electromagnetic field. He told them how moving light produces shadows.

That was not enough to convince the German wikipedia editors. They wrote: "Light does not move." And "You have not proven that it does."

The real world is better than any satire.

Finally, Motl gets trouble

Finally, Motl gets what he deserves: a letter from the lawyer. As much as I enjoy his physics comments, it is time that he gets a lesson on the law - and on the way to behave.

Sabine, you are great! People like him, so verbally abusive, do not belong into the public space. 

He now plays the victim - like all violent people do.

Sabine, go on!

Lying particle physicists against caring mothers

As mothers, we care about children. We do not like politicians spending billions for missiles and bombers. We also do not like liars. We do not want our children to grow up to be liars.

There are many particle physicists who think that they are the smartest people, and that they are the only people worth existing. I have seen people with PhDs writing that other physicists should be gassed, that other physicists should stop research, that whoever does not not believe them should go drown in the toilet, or that whoever says the truth is bad.

And the people writing these things got their PhDs for false statements. You will not believe it, but there are several domains of physics where you can get a PhD for writing about supersymmetry, about string theory, about axions, or about many other fairy tale concepts that are in contrast with data and with all experiments performed so far.

Where has theoretical particle physics gone? How can it be that you get degrees and, worse, that you make a career with work that is wrong?

These people are liars. They are not nasty, of course, and they also lie to themselves. They really believe what they say. They do not do much harm. But they destroy their lives, and poison their environment. Some of them are aggressive towards critics, and they fight angrily for money that their lies "deserve".

Sabine Hossenfelder, in contrast, is a caring mother. She believes that physicists should not lie. Not to the public, and not to anybody else, including themselves. Other bloggers, who have never cared for anything else than their own ego, are attacking her. And they are many. Do they think about what they are doing to their children?

In the end, truth and love will win. Mothers are stronger than angry boys.