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!
17 March 2019
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.
2 February 2019
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.
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.
29 December 2018
Older women against CERN
Should CERN ask for money for the future circular collider FCC or not? If you like particle physics, read the internal CERN yellow report https://cds.cern.ch/record/2270978 . It is a (partial) list of things that could be done with the machine.
Have a look at the section "beyond the standard model". It is much shorter and really depressing. There is no real reason to build the FCC given in it.
My colleague Sabine Hossenfelder also says so in http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2018/12/cern-produces-marketing-video-for-new.html where she writes: "After the discovery of the Higgs-boson, there is also no good reason for why there should be something else to find, neither at the LHC nor at higher energies, not up until 15 orders of magnitude higher than what we can reach now. "
But when she says so, she is abused by all sorts of people. When CERN writes the same in its own report, nobody says anything.
CERN is shooting in its own foot. Real life is better than any satire.
Have a look at the section "beyond the standard model". It is much shorter and really depressing. There is no real reason to build the FCC given in it.
My colleague Sabine Hossenfelder also says so in http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2018/12/cern-produces-marketing-video-for-new.html where she writes: "After the discovery of the Higgs-boson, there is also no good reason for why there should be something else to find, neither at the LHC nor at higher energies, not up until 15 orders of magnitude higher than what we can reach now. "
But when she says so, she is abused by all sorts of people. When CERN writes the same in its own report, nobody says anything.
CERN is shooting in its own foot. Real life is better than any satire.
10 December 2018
Why is there no theory of everything yet? It is our - women's - fault!
Physicists are special people. Many are careful, delicate, dreamers, smart, introverts, hard-working and much more. Why did we not find our theory of everything yet? After all, there are so many of us.
Are they looking in the wrong places? Yes. Are they using the wrong models? Yes. Are they afraid to think in different direction? Yes. Are they afraid not to get grants? Yes. But why do they continue like this?
Here is the answer: it is because of us women. We all know that men try to perform to impress us. This is also true for theoretical physicists. So we have all these young male physicists around who try to maximise the impression they make on us. And of course, they think that we want a husband with a safe job. They think that a woman prefers a string theorist that is well paid to a lonely researcher that is right in his theory but has no job. And of course, these men are right.
Worse, some of us, like Sabine Hossenfelder, now start making fun of all men working on the theory of everything. How can a young researcher entering theoretical physics think productively if women, especially older women like Sabine and me, make fun of him? He will never find out anything, I promise you.
Yes, all this is a conspiracy of women to ensure that no man finds the theory of everything. We want men to continue searching in dead ends. We want a woman to get the prize!
Are they looking in the wrong places? Yes. Are they using the wrong models? Yes. Are they afraid to think in different direction? Yes. Are they afraid not to get grants? Yes. But why do they continue like this?
Here is the answer: it is because of us women. We all know that men try to perform to impress us. This is also true for theoretical physicists. So we have all these young male physicists around who try to maximise the impression they make on us. And of course, they think that we want a husband with a safe job. They think that a woman prefers a string theorist that is well paid to a lonely researcher that is right in his theory but has no job. And of course, these men are right.
Worse, some of us, like Sabine Hossenfelder, now start making fun of all men working on the theory of everything. How can a young researcher entering theoretical physics think productively if women, especially older women like Sabine and me, make fun of him? He will never find out anything, I promise you.
Yes, all this is a conspiracy of women to ensure that no man finds the theory of everything. We want men to continue searching in dead ends. We want a woman to get the prize!
24 November 2018
Researchers need encouragement, not hypocrites
Go to arxiv.org and search for "theory of everything". You get 82 results. 82 preprints in 24 years. That is really low. After all, researchers are all looking for theory of everything, aren't they? Two preprints are by Nobel prize winners, but both are nonsense. The other 80 preprints are equally nonsense. The truth is this: 0 real papers about the topic.
Imagine that a manager heading an organisation with 5 000 employees that work for 24 years to find a law of nature. He pays them a salary and promises money and fame to the finder. Of the 5 000, in over 24 years, nobody succeeds. The manager did something wrong. So did the 5 000 employees.
But the story gets even better. A few commenters state loudly that something is wrong. But when asked, they refuse to give hints where to search, they refuse to give advice, and they refuse to encourage others. These hypocrites are a disaster: they discourage their peers more than the lack of results does.
When you search, you need encouragement, not hypocrites. Shut the hypocrites up - or change them into encouraging fellows.
21 November 2018
Get an attic to find the TOE
Peter Shor offers this advice to those searching for a TOE:
So the only advice I have is that more physicists need to not worry about grants, and go hide in their attics and work on new and crazy theories, the way Andrew Wiles worked on Fermat's Last Theorem.
But there is a little issue: most researchers have no Attics any more - by which I mean a topic dear to their heart on which they will work in special time. So far, I have only met a handful of researchers that had one.
Interestingly, the majority of them were women. There is hope. I think women will reach there first.
So the only advice I have is that more physicists need to not worry about grants, and go hide in their attics and work on new and crazy theories, the way Andrew Wiles worked on Fermat's Last Theorem.
But there is a little issue: most researchers have no Attics any more - by which I mean a topic dear to their heart on which they will work in special time. So far, I have only met a handful of researchers that had one.
Interestingly, the majority of them were women. There is hope. I think women will reach there first.
18 November 2018
Physicists and their Loch Ness monsters
True story: We all know why people around Loch Ness tell the story of a monster: to get tourists there. They invent stories to get money.
Satire: We all know why fundamental physicists tell the story about supersymmetry being a symmetry of nature: to get more funding. They invent stories to get money.
Satire: We all know why solid state physicists tell the story about quantum technology being the future of technology: to get more funding. They invent stories to get money.
Moral of the story: do not confuse the situations: The people around Loch Ness are crooks. The researchers in supersymmetry and into the solid state are honourable. Please treat them with great respect.
Satire: We all know why fundamental physicists tell the story about supersymmetry being a symmetry of nature: to get more funding. They invent stories to get money.
Satire: We all know why solid state physicists tell the story about quantum technology being the future of technology: to get more funding. They invent stories to get money.
Moral of the story: do not confuse the situations: The people around Loch Ness are crooks. The researchers in supersymmetry and into the solid state are honourable. Please treat them with great respect.
13 November 2018
Riding a sick horse is better than commenting about a dead one
A decade ago, when I was a young blogger, I made fun of pompous opinion makers who stated that loop quantum gravity and string theory were the way to go. They were riding sick horses, and some of them still do.
Today, the opinion makers have changed. Now they criticize string theory and quantum gravity. But they are more pompous than their predecessors. The older generation was at least trying something out and encouraging others to come with them. It did not work, but they tried to achieve something. The new generation are not even searching any more; they are not trying anything. They are just discouraging everything and everybody else.
The new generation is more disillusioned, more bitter and more pompous than the old one. Like the catholic church, we now have opinion makers commenting the mistakes of others. These opinion makers in public pretend to do nothing wrong and to be holy, but in private they sin more than the average, while commenting the mistakes of others.
Today, the opinion makers have changed. Now they criticize string theory and quantum gravity. But they are more pompous than their predecessors. The older generation was at least trying something out and encouraging others to come with them. It did not work, but they tried to achieve something. The new generation are not even searching any more; they are not trying anything. They are just discouraging everything and everybody else.
The new generation is more disillusioned, more bitter and more pompous than the old one. Like the catholic church, we now have opinion makers commenting the mistakes of others. These opinion makers in public pretend to do nothing wrong and to be holy, but in private they sin more than the average, while commenting the mistakes of others.
28 October 2018
I wrote Sabine Hossenfelder about Lost in Math
and sent a comment to her Backreaction blog. I like her, because she is passionate about fundamental physics, because she wrote the preprint https://arxiv.org/pdf/1801.02176.pdf, because she dislikes string theory and the multiverse, and on top of all this she dislikes certain less than kind Czech bloggers.
I had written her that Lost in Math is a good book. It explains that researchers got lost because of too much math, and too much apparently "beautiful" math. I added that the trouble seems to start with the idea that the standard model is 'ugly' (as I wrote a few posts ago). Finding an argument showing that the standard model is beautiful would be the best solution: it would change the situation completely, and it would discourage young researchers from taking the wrong path.
Unfortunately, she did not approve my comment. I will try again another day.
I had written her that Lost in Math is a good book. It explains that researchers got lost because of too much math, and too much apparently "beautiful" math. I added that the trouble seems to start with the idea that the standard model is 'ugly' (as I wrote a few posts ago). Finding an argument showing that the standard model is beautiful would be the best solution: it would change the situation completely, and it would discourage young researchers from taking the wrong path.
Unfortunately, she did not approve my comment. I will try again another day.
27 October 2018
What experiments in fundamental physics? CERN is lost - in math and nonsense
True story: CERN is looking for input for the European Strategy for Particle Physics. They look for input from anybody, and are setting up a website to collect it.
Satire: We all know what this means: we have a multi-billion dollar project that does not know what to do. They have proven the standard model right, found no physics beyond it. And now they worry what to do. Indeed, what should they do with all that money? Please help them!
True story: Scientists already had such a situation. Once upon a time, chemists discovered the periodic table of the elements. Then they filled up the gaps. There are few open topics, but the field is now essentially closed.
True story: Now CERN is in the same situation. The tables of elementary particles are filled up, and the field is now essentially closed. The research race is a different one: calculate the parameters of the standard model.
Satire: Now imagine, you have thousands of scientists in CERN and universities who do not know what to do. Some of them have not yet noticed, some of them changed from physics to offending others, some of them are lost in math, in supersymmetry, in multiple Higgs fantasies, and some of them are lost in real nonsensensical theories - from strings to - maybe - spaghetti.
Satire: What will these scientists tell their children? They have a hard time ahead. Use the accelerator to invent new products. Use the computers to calculate. Use the left over data to stop exploring failed theories. Tell the world the truth, and and then change it to a better place.
True story: Of course, this will not happen. When have men with a lot of money ever told the truth? Men with money always want more money.
Satire: We all know what this means: we have a multi-billion dollar project that does not know what to do. They have proven the standard model right, found no physics beyond it. And now they worry what to do. Indeed, what should they do with all that money? Please help them!
True story: Scientists already had such a situation. Once upon a time, chemists discovered the periodic table of the elements. Then they filled up the gaps. There are few open topics, but the field is now essentially closed.
True story: Now CERN is in the same situation. The tables of elementary particles are filled up, and the field is now essentially closed. The research race is a different one: calculate the parameters of the standard model.
Satire: Now imagine, you have thousands of scientists in CERN and universities who do not know what to do. Some of them have not yet noticed, some of them changed from physics to offending others, some of them are lost in math, in supersymmetry, in multiple Higgs fantasies, and some of them are lost in real nonsensensical theories - from strings to - maybe - spaghetti.
Satire: What will these scientists tell their children? They have a hard time ahead. Use the accelerator to invent new products. Use the computers to calculate. Use the left over data to stop exploring failed theories. Tell the world the truth, and and then change it to a better place.
True story: Of course, this will not happen. When have men with a lot of money ever told the truth? Men with money always want more money.
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