Paul Davies says string theory is patently false

bobsmith76

In a youtube video Paul Davies Beyond Belief,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwkw39Euc64

he said that string theory and M theory were so obviously and patently false that he didn't even bother to discuss them. I thought Lee Smolin was the only critic of string theory I didn't know that Paul Davies was one too. How much weight does Paul Davies' voice carry in the physics community?


I put this thread in Beyond the Standard Model because it discusses string theory.

Greg Bernhardt

Do you have a link to this video or an article to reference?

torquil

Sounds sort of like a preventive tactic, designed to make anyone who wishes to oppose that view come off as being naive or foolish, in the eyes of outsiders... No more explanation was given, at least in the three video parts I watched.

There are plenty of critics of string theory.

LBloom

String theory is not patently false. It is a tentative theory for everything, the best we have yet) which should not be accepted as fact yet. To say that it is simply false is just as bad as those who simply say its correct. We don't know if it is or isn't, only time will tell when its confirmed or disregarded for a theory that works better.

Whether the study of ST should be funded the way it is is a matter of politics. Whether there are better models out there is a debate physicists should be having and I think they are. For now high energy theorists work with what they can until hopefully new physics starts showing up or some headway is made with these various models.