- #36
twofish-quant
- 6,821
- 20
chiro said:I concede that it's not the only game town, but that point wasn't brought up and I would defend any serious deductive framework endeavor that has enough support.
Sure, and after 20 years of trying the experimental support of string theory is ?
Even if people don't see results in their lifetime, i don't think it's worth not pursuing.
Ph.D. committees want you to produce something after five to seven years. You may not (and you aren't expected) to come up with the answer to life, the universe, and everything, but it's a bad sign if you come up with nothing useful.
Even figuring out that it's the wrong approach is useful. One problem I have with string theory is that it's difficult to know when you are even wrong. Working on something for two decades and then having it be totally obvious that it was the wrong approach and that it's time to work on something else would be useful, but it doesn't seem to me that string theory has even gotten to that point...
This happens all the time anyway where people think they will solve it all and end up realizing that it's probably a little early after a lifetime of dedication. Doesn't mean its all wasted though.
You aren't going to solve everything in a lifetime, but I think it's reasonable to ask after X years if you've been able to solve *anything*.