What is Not Even Wrong, THE BOOK!?

[Kea]

...in the subject this thread is about...

I thought this thread was about the book Peter Woit is about to publish, and what we think of it ... not what we think other people think of it.

 

[Sam Owen]

^^^hardly anything in this froum is what "we" think of it, it's more about what we think other people think about it and being too ignorant or fearful of saying what we really think.

That smolin letter to string believer thread is a classic example.

BTW what's the point in saying you're blond and buxom if you're not going to prove it ?

I could say I am dreadlocked, tattooed and vote green would you believe me ?

As for the book I'm keen to read it on the understanding that it won't take much to prove string theory in the future and that it doesn't take much to disprove it in the present.

If it happens that extra dimensions are found and a background dependent theory of gravity and time is proven, Woit will be the one with egg on his face and Lubos will rightfully hound him for it

who knows whether that will happen in our lifetime though, maybe the aliens will have to show us :)

 

[Kea]

Quoting Woit, who won't say much about the content of the book,

The book contains material on several related topics, including a history of the standard model from a mathematically-informed perspective, a description of the history, current status and prospects of high energy accelerators and particle physics experiments, some of the history of recent interactions between mathematics and physics, a history of supersymmetry and string theory and attempts to use them to get beyond the standard model, comments on the notion of beauty in theoretical physics and on the sociology of how particle physics is pursued and supported, especially in the US. There’s also a section explaining exactly what the problems with supersymmetry and string theory are, making the case that these are ideas that have failed conclusively, together with an explanation of what the whole landscape controversy is about.

This sounds like exactly what you would expect in such a book, nothing really new, but if the final argument is as careful as Peter is claiming then I look forward to seeing it. I'm hoping also that he has really gone to some effort to understand the current status of HEP experiments - it's hard to keep up with all this stuff. Sounds like he's packing too much into 250 pages, though. Guess we just have to wait and see.

Cheers
Kea

 

[CarlB]

Sounds like he's packing too much into 250 pages, though. Guess we just have to wait and see.

It does seem thin. It's barely enough to give a rough introduction to the standard model. Of the skinny books on the standard model I own, one of my favorite books is Kerson Huang's "Quarks, Leptons and Gauge Fields":


I think of it as a thin book; the latest edition is 333 pages long. I have the first edition from 1982 which must be around 250 pages or so. And it's also a rather small book. Maybe Woit's book has big pages.

I'll probably buy a copy of Not Even Wrong when it becomes available.

Carl

 

[arivero]

It does seem thin. It's barely enough to give a rough introduction to the standard model. Of the skinny books on the standard model I own, one of my favorite books is Kerson Huang's "Quarks, Leptons and Gauge Fields":


I think of it as a thin book; the latest edition is 333 pages long. I have the first edition from 1982 which must be around 250 pages or so. And it's also a rather small book. Maybe Woit's book has big pages.

Well it is thin because the pre heating chapters on QFT have been stored in other book (a set of lecture notes, if you wish). But it is true it is the single most informative book on Particle Theory.