Horgan's review of Not Even Wrong

In summary: I guess it is time to make the point that I know of people who just quietly do string-related research without hyping it or making a public pitch and who seem to know about alternatives and acknowledge that they are interesting. And they are some of the...advocates.In summary, John Horgan's review of Peter Woit's book is negative but offers an alternative perspective on the string theory community.
  • #1
marcus
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to keep track of the response to Peter Woit's book here is a review by John Horgan, a well-known science writer, in the August 2006 issue of
PROSPECT magazine. Horgan's review is titles "Stringing us along":
====quote====

Stringing us along

The tide seems to be turning against string theory and its speculative attempts to produce a "theory of everything." Not a moment too soon
John Horgan

John Horgan is director of the Centre for Science Writings at Stevens Institute of Technology, New Jersey

Not Even Wrong by Peter Woit
Jonathan Cape, £18.99

"String theory is still promising," I once heard the physicist and Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek quip, "and promising, and promising." String theory is a so-called unified theory, which attempts to wrap quantum mechanics and relativity into one tidy mathematical explanation of all nature's forces, and it has been promising for more than 20 years now without delivering.

Depending on which variant you prefer, string theory holds that reality is woven out of infinitesimal strings, or loops, or membranes vibrating in a hyperspace of ten, or 11, or whatever dimensions. Advocates—I will call them "pluckers"—claim that string theory represents a "theory of everything" that will answer the most profound of all questions: how did the universe come to be? And why did it take this particular form rather than some other form that would not have permitted our existence?

In his 1988 blockbuster A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking nominated string theory as the best candidate for a solution to the riddle of the cosmos. Since then, proponents have continued...

====endquote====
the Prospect Magazine link is:
http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=7585 [Broken]

other links and review material are here:
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=122442

thanks to Peter Woit for pointing out this review

I highlighted Horgan's word advocates to clarify something in a later post.
 
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  • #2
John Horgan has this blog
http://www.stevens.edu/csw/cgi-bin/blogs/scientific_curmudgeon/index.php [Broken]

his Prospect magazine review of Peter Woit's book is not up on the blog, at least so far

I would expect some discussion of the review, maybe at Horgan's blog
and will try to find it, to give a link.
====================

here is a list of Horgan's other writings
http://www.johnhorgan.org/works.htm

I was unable to find an alternate source for his review of Woit's book
(it costs a couple of bucks to read it on Prospect unless you subscribe)

here is more discussion at Woit's blog:
http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=435#comment-13883
 
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  • #3
"Pluckers." Brilliant!

Did he come with that, or was it someone else originally?
 
  • #4
Mickey said:
"Pluckers." Brilliant!

Did he come with that, or was it someone else originally?

I am not sure I like it though.
Is it a pun on "pluggers"?
referring to admen who "plug", that is to say hype, stuff to sell it
to the public.

Actually, Mickey, I am not sure I personally like Horgan's style, particularly this epithet.

But the review is news----Horgan was a senior writer at SciAm for quite a few years---he has written for Edge.com and the New York Times. His own books get attention. here is some bio:
http://www.johnhorgan.org/index.htm
With someone of his stature, what he says in his review of Woit's book is apt to be discussed. So I report it, and hope for both sides of the issue to be represented in discussion.

The first thing is it would be nice if someone had actually seen the whole text of the review.
Anybody, if you have seen the whole thing please let the rest of us know!
 
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  • #5
marcus said:
Is it a pun on "pluggers"?
referring to admen who "plug", that is to say hype, stuff to sell it
to the public.

No, I think he meant it in the way that plucking a string makes it vibrate, typically for a very brief and underwhelming moment.

I play the violin (well, I used to...) and "plucking" is the technical term for playing a note without the use of the bow and using the fingers to directly strike the string instead. Compared to the long smooth sound and gentle contact of the bow, plucking is delightfully savage and flighty. Since the sound is so weak, it's used for moments of lightness. It's often associated with imagery like dancing fairies or prancing small animals, like you'd see in Fantasia and other animated films.
 
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  • #6
Mickey said:
... It's often associated with imagery like dancing fairies or prancing small animals, like you'd see in Fantasia and other animated films.

the cuteness of pizzicato, I see. by coincidence I've played violin some too (second fiddle in our small family ensemble).
Maybe it is a forked pun involving BOTH ideas.
It still doesn't make it as an epithet, for me----or maybe I'm just bothered by the fact that he uses any epithet at all for string advocates.

if it is a pun then it is plucker because it has to do with string
and plugger because he is explicitly talking about people who advocate

I guess it is time to make the point that I know of people who just quietly do string-related research without hyping it or making a public pitch and who seem to know about alternatives and acknowledge that they are interesting. And they are some of the best young ones that I know.

So you can be a string researcher without being an advocate. Horgan was specifically talking about advocates---he used that word.

Two good examples that come to mind are Andy Strominger and Urs Schreiber. (harvard, and uni hamburg). AndyS has been articulate about acknowledging that there are good reasons to do non-string QG and to support it with funds---altho he does string himself since that's his line.

UrsS asks intelligent questions at web forums that show he understands some of the latest work in non-string QG---instead of having a closed view based on what string folks might tell themselves about Loop Gravity from 10 years ago, i.e. stereotypes. He is a committed and aggressive young string researcher, but he knows some of the newest non-string work and in fact some of his research seems related to it!

so my critique of Horgan is that altho I think he is brilliant and presents novel ideas about science in an original and persuasive way, I nevertheless suspect him of presenting a picture that is too monolithic. but I can't tell for sure because I can't find a free download of his article.
In any case one should try to reflect the complexity of the situation, and not only give a broad sweeping vision.
 
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  • #7
Marcus said:
guess it is time to make the point that I know of people who just quietly do string-related research without hyping it or making a public pitch and who seem to know about alternatives and acknowledge that they are interesting. And they are some of the best young ones that I know.

Excellent to make that distinction! Even older workers, even Witten!, are not so triumphalistic in general. I think triumphalism indicates something amiss in the relation of individual and the field he is being triumphalistic over. I've noticed this in the cases of super-patriots, fanatic religionists, flaming atheists, and of course folks like the ineffable L.M.
 
  • #8
selfAdjoint said:
flaming atheists,..

now your flaming atheist is, to my way of thinking, the only kind worth bothering with---for he harbors a devout soul.:smile:
 
  • #9
marcus said:
now your flaming atheist is, to my way of thinking, the only kind worth bothering with---for he harbors a devout soul.:smile:

I was thinking of atheists who can't be fair to religionists. I recall a young lady I dated a couple of times; her atheism was blatant but skin deep because she hated (the traditional Protestant) God. And she hated God because her father was an overbearing bully; transference.

The dialectical term for people in this sort of fix is Denial of the Antithesis. It's a hang-up. And it's no wonder that the Bolsheviks, who gloried in describing themselves as DotA, came up with "The Stupidest Idea of the Twentieth Century".

But I'm getting farther and farther OT.
 
  • #10
Oh, I see now. Yeah, I suppose it could mean that. Too bad, I kind of liked the whimsy of the word.

Maybe we can just say that a non-advocate string researcher is a "pizzicato." :smile:

This talk about God makes me wonder if there are any "string theists."
 
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  • #11
Of the different versions, I suppose the most pizzicato would be perturbative string theory because it deals with tiny pluctuations.

Mickey said:
... makes me wonder if there are any "string theists."
:uhh: :biggrin:
 
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  • #12
(via Peter Woit)
The full text of Horgan's review of N.E.W. is available at this site:

http://www.stevens.edu/csw/cgi-bin/index.php?p=notEvenWrong [Broken]
 
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1. What is Horgan's review of Not Even Wrong?

Horgan's review of Not Even Wrong is a critical analysis of the book written by Peter Woit, which discusses the controversy surrounding string theory and its validity as a theory of everything in the field of physics.

2. Why did Horgan write a review of Not Even Wrong?

Horgan wrote the review to evaluate the arguments presented in the book and to provide his own perspective on the debate surrounding string theory.

3. What is the main argument of Horgan's review?

The main argument of Horgan's review is that while string theory has not yet been proven, it also cannot be completely dismissed as a valid theory. He argues that the scientific community should continue to explore and test the theory rather than dismissing it entirely.

4. Does Horgan agree or disagree with the arguments presented in Not Even Wrong?

Horgan disagrees with some of the arguments presented in Not Even Wrong, particularly the idea that string theory is a "failed" theory. He believes that while it has not yet been proven, it should still be considered a valid theory worth exploring.

5. What does Horgan's review add to the ongoing debate about string theory?

Horgan's review adds a critical perspective to the ongoing debate about string theory, highlighting the limitations and controversies surrounding the theory while also acknowledging its potential significance in the field of physics. It encourages further discussion and exploration of the topic rather than a definitive conclusion.

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