The first step to recovery is admitting there is a problem.

Thanks Dr. Smolin!!

Here are some quotes from your rockin' book and my responses:

"Thus all the theories that triumphed had consequences for experiment
that were simple to work out and could be tested within a few years.
This does not mean that the theories could solved exactly-most theories
never are. But it does mean that physical insight lead immediately to a
prediction of a new physical effect." -Lee Smolin, The trouble With
Physics, The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of Science, and What Comes
Next

While MDT doesn't predict a new physical effect, it does explain
physical phenomena such as entanglement and action-at-a-distance as
never before. Furthermore, it also unifies GR and QM with a simple
physical model. Also, it shows that quantum mechanical and relativistic
phenomena derive from the same underlying physical reality--a fourth
dimension that is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions.

Ed Witten Seen Reading Lee Smolin's "The Trouble With Physics": NSF
Quadruples LQG's Funding, Slashes ST's Funding, and Every University
Gets Three LQG Theorists To Talk Amongst Themselves & Give One Another
Tenure!
A discussion in this product's forum
Return to The Trouble With Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the
Fall of a...
1 participant | Latest post on Sep 13, 2006 7:55 AM PDT
Is this discussion helpful? (Report abuse)

Help

You are tracking this discussion.

Receive e-mail when new posts are made.

Show: 10 | 40 postsFirst | Previous 1 of 1 Next | Last Sort: Oldest
first | Newest firstDr. Ranger McCoy Initial post Ed Witten Seen
Reading Lee Smolin's "The Trouble With Physics": NSF Quadruples LQG's
Funding, Slashes ST's Funding, and Every University Gets Three LQG
Theorists To Talk Amongst Themselves & Give One Another Tenure!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
THE PHYSICS TIMES
Princeton, NJ

Ed Witten was seen reading Lee Smolin's THE TORUBLE WITH PHYSICS while
simultaneuosly walking down Nassau Street in an inertial frame,
followed by his 137 postdocs, who were chanting in unison.

Some towards the front of the line started crying first, as they
realized it was the end of a free ride for blind obedience, and that
for health benefits and summers off, they were going to have to hurt
themselves by thinking on their own.

The news spread far and wide. Up in Cambridge Lubos Motl changed his
snarky two star amazon review for THE TROUBLE WITH PHYSICS to a
laudatory five star review, so as to secure future NSF funding. And
Michio Kaku added Smolin as a friend at his myspace page, after a call
from his media team.

"I've seen darker days than this," Brian Greene smiled. "I already got
my two string theory coffee table books out and am set. I know that I
have secured the Nobel--in literature."

Witten said, "It is time to make peace. The most important thing that
we ST, LQGers, and Not Even Wrongers must do is continue to oppose
physical theories, which unify disparate physical phenomena in the same
physical framework. Otherwise mathematical masturbation will fall out
of favor, and we will have to join the proletariat in working for a
living and taking what they're giving."

I wish Woit would have talked more about his views on the future of
physics.

String Theory was the only game in town, and now there are two--ST &
deconstructing ST.

But there is another that actually unifies QM & SR & GR with a physical
model: MDT--it's physics!

Moving Dimensions Theory is in complete agreement with all experimental
tests and phenomena associated with special and general relativity. MDT
is in complete agreement with all physical phenomena as predicted by
quantum mechanics and demonstrated in extensive experiments. The genius
and novelty of MDT is that it presents a common physical model which
shows that phenomena from both relativity and quantum mechanics derive
from the same fundamental physical reality.

Nowhere does String Theory nor Loop Quantum Gravity account for quantum
entanglement nor relativistic time dilation. MDT shows these derive
from the same underlying physical reality. Nowhere does ST nor LQG
account for wave-particle duality nor relativistic length contraction.
MDT shows these derive from the same underlying physical reality.
Nowhere does ST nor LQG account for the constant speed of light, nor
the independence of the speed of light on the velocity of the source,
nor entropy, nor time's arrow. MDT shows these derive from the same
underlying physical reality. Nowhere does String Theory nor Loop
Quantum Gravity resolve the paradox of Godel's Block Universe which
troubled Eisntein. MDT resolves this paradox.

Simply put, MDT replaces the contemporary none-theories with a physical
theory, complete with a simple postulate that unifies formerly
disparate phenomena within a simple context.

THE GENERAL POSTULATE
OF DYNAMIC DIMENSIONS THEORY
The fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial
dimensions.

If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.
-Albert Einstein

But after thirty years of the absurdity of String Theory, millions of
dollars from the NSF, and billions of complementary dollars from tax
and tuition and endowments spent on killing physics and indie
physicists, perhaps it's time for something that makes sense-for a
physical theory that actually accounts for a deeper reality from which
both Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, from which time, entanglement,
gravity, entropy, interference, the constant speed of light,
relativistic time dilation, length contraction, and the equivalence of
mass and energy emerge. It's time for Moving Dimensions Theory-MDT.
-The Physicist with No Name

I know what you're thinking. Did he say there were thirty-six
dimensions or only thirty-five? Well to tell you the truth in all this
excitement I've kinda lost track myself. But being this is a .45
Revolver-the most powerful hand gun in the world and would blow your
head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question--Do I feel
lucky? Well, do ya punk!? -Clint Eastwood

I'm interested in the fact that the less secure a man is, the more
likely he is to have extreme prejudice. -Clint Eastwood

Go ahead. Make my day. -Clint Eastwood

MDT IN BRIEF
Without further adieu, allow me to present the beauty and elegance of
MDT by showing both its simplicity and far-reaching ability to account
for and answer fundamental questions. All of the below will be
elaborated on throughout the book.

Questions Addressed by MDT:

Why does light have a maximum, constant speed independent of the
source? The fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial
dimensions. A photon is momenergy that exists orthogonal to the three
spatial dimensions. It is carried along by the expanding fourth
dimension. So no matter how fast the source is moving when the photon
is emitted, the photon travels at the rate with which the fourth
dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions. Thus c
is always independent of the movement of the source.

Why are light and energy quantized? The fourth dimension is expanding
in a quantized manner relative to the three spatial dimensions. Light
and energy are matter rotated completely into the fourth expanding
dimension, and as it expands in a quantized manner, light and energy
are thus quantized.

Why is the velocity of light constant in all frames? Time is an
emergent phenomena that arises because the fourth dimension is
expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions. The flow of time is
inextricably wed to the emission and propagation of photons. In all
biological, mechanical, and electronic clocks, the emission and
propagation of photons is what determines time. The velocity of light
is always measured with respect to time, which is inextricably linked
to the velocity of light. This tautology ensures that the velocity of
light, measured relative to the velocity of light, will always be the
same.

"Whatever else one says about string theory, loop quantum gravity, and
other approaches, they have not delivered on that front. The standard
excuse has been that experiments on this scale are impossible to
perform-but, as we've seen, this is not the case. So there must be
another reason. I believe there is something basic we are all missing,
some wrong assumption we are all making. If this is so, then we need to
isolate the wrong assumption and replace it with a new idea." -Lee
Smolin, The trouble With Physics, The Rise of String Theory, The Fall
of Science, and What Comes Next

The wrong assumption originates from the confusion of time with the
fourth dimension. Time is not the fourth dimension, but it is an
emergent phenomenon that arises from a fourth dimension that is
expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions. Time inherits
certain properties of the fourth dimension, but the over-extending of
the dimensionality of time has lead to troubling and ridiculous
situations such as Godel's block universe, wherein time is frozen; and
wherein the past, present, and future already exist.

The fourth dimension expands at the rate of c in units of the Planck
length. Thus macroscopic objects rarely ever enter into the fourth
expanding dimension deeper than the Planck length. A photon is matter
that surfs the expanding fourth dimension, jumping from crest to crest
of all the tiny expansions of the fourth dimension which manifest
themselves as spheres in the three spatial dimensions. Thus a photon
appears as a spherically expanding wavefront in the three spatial
dimensions. Furthermore, a photon does not age as it stays in the exact
same place in the fourth expanding dimension, causing it to translate
with a velocity of c in the three spatial dimensions.

"What could that wrong assumption be? My guess is that it involves two
things: the foundations of quantum mechanics and the nature of time. We
have already discussed the first; I find it hopeful that new ideas
about quantum mechanics have been proposed recently, motivated by
studies of quantum gravity. But I strongly suspect that the key is
time. More and more, I have the feeling that quantum theory and general
relativity are both deeply wrong about the nature of time. It is not
enough to combine them. There is a deeper problem, perhaps going back
to the origin of physics." -Lee Smolin, The trouble With Physics, The
Rise of String Theory, The Fall of Science, and What Comes Next

MDT takes us back to the origin of physics, and it presents us with a
fundamental view of reality that conforms to all experimental evidence,
while not only resolving the paradoxes of the non-locality of the EPR
effect and Godel's block universe, but unifying the resolution within a
simple physical postulate. Before Einstein's relativity, space and time
(as well as matter and energy) were considered to be disparate
entities. Einstein's relativity united them, and suddenly time was
mistakenly seen as the fourth dimension, rather than as an emergent
property of a fourth dimension expanding relative to three spatial
dimensions. Then, when Einstein correctly saw that all moving objects
are shortened when energy is added-when they are rotated out of the
three spatial dimensions and into a fourth dimension-just as a far-away
ruler appears shortened as it is rotated, Einstein had the genius to
call upon a the four-dimensional formulation of space time.

However, this lead to confusion; as Einstein did not see that
macroscopic objects-rest masses-never enter the fourth dimension deeper
than the Planck length. Hence the past and future do not yet exist, but
only the present. Nor did Einstein realize that the fourth dimension is
expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions-simple postulate
with far-reaching consequences.

"Around the beginning of the seventeenth century, Descartes and Galileo
made a wonderful discovery: You could draw a graph, with one axis being
space and the other being time. A motion through space then becomes a
curve on the graph. In this way, time is represented as if it were
another dimension of space. Motion is frozen, and a whole history of
constant motion and change is presented to us as something static and
unchanging. If I had to guess (and guessing is what I do for a living),
this is the scene of the crime". -Lee Smolin, The trouble With Physics,
The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of Science, and What Comes Next

MDT unfreezes time, liberating us all with free will-the free will to
move beyond ST & LQG, which are not inextricably locked into the fixed
future of the block universe as Brain Green and Paul Davies would have
you suppose. Neither the future nor the past exists. Motion is inherent
in the underlying four-dimensional space-time geometry, as the fourth
dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions.
Einstein noted that all objects are moving through space-time at the
velocity c. This never changes. An object stationary in the three
spatial dimensions is translating through the fourth dimension at the
rate of c. An object stationary in the fourth dimension-a photon-is
translating through the three spatial dimensions at the rate of c.
Hence it is obvious that the fourth dimension is expanding relative to
the three spatial dimensions.
String Theory's greatest contribution to physics has been the utter
rejection of the obvious, the denial of common sense, and the
institutionalization of thousands of mediocrities to ignore or
shout-down any physics that might get in the way of their vast
commercial industries which must trump truth-their salaries, benefits,
and science-fiction books. Indeed, ST gives full license to make one's
ignorance one's arrogance, and thus it is the breeding ground for those
with ambitions overshadowing their talents.

"We have to find a way to unfreeze time-to represent time without
turning it into space. I have to idea how to do this. I can't conceive
of a mathematics that doesn't represent a world as if it were frozen it
eternity. It's terribly hard to represent time, and that's why there's
a good chance this representation is the missing piece." -Lee Smolin,
The trouble With Physics, The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of
Science, and What Comes Next

There actually is no problem with the representation of time in
physical theories, but only within the interpretations and
extrapolations of modern theorists. Time, as it is defined, works
perfectly in quantum mechanics and relativity, as it does in Newtonian
mechanics and classical electrodynamics. Hence our cars and computers
which work perfectly well each and every day.
However, when the notion of time is warped and extrapolated to suit the
fantasies of prominent physicists who ignore login, reason, and
experiment, in order to create wormholes and time machines, it only
goes to show that time is not the fourth dimension, but an emergent
property of a universe wherein a fourth dimension is expanding relative
to the three spatial dimensions.

"One thing is clear: I can't get anywhere thinking about this problem
within the confines of string theory. Since string theory is limited to
the description of strings and branes moving in fixed background
spacetime geometries, it offers nothing for someone who wants to break
new ground thinking about the nature of time or of quantum theory.
Background-independent approaches offer a better starting point,
because they have already transcended the classical pictures of space
and time. And they are simple to define and easy to play with." -Lee
Smolin, The trouble With Physics, The Rise of String Theory, The Fall
of Science, and What Comes Next

Indeed String Theory has banned asking the questions that MDT
addresses, such as "What is the nature of the physical framework
underlying the observed phenomena of relativity and quantum mechanics?"
String theory has bred an entire generation of physicists who believe
that politics, hype, and name-calling are to be preferred over logic,
reason, and truth to advance physics. Sting Theory, though funded with
hundreds of millions, yet lacks the simple truth and beauty of this
postulate-"the fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three
spatial dimensions."

"I won't say any more about this, because I want to move on to a
different question. Suppose an intellectually ambitious young person
with an original and impatient mind wants to think deeply about the
five great questions. Given our failure to solve any of them, I can't
imagine why such a person would want to be limited to working in any of
the current research programs. Clearly, if string theory or loop
quantum gravity by themselves were the answer, we would know it by now.
They may be starting points, they may be parts of the answer, they may
contain necessary lessons. But the right theory must contain new
elements, which our ambitious young person is perhaps uniquely
qualified to search for." -Lee Smolin, The trouble With Physics, The
Rise of String Theory, The Fall of Science, and What Comes Next

Perhaps the excessive funding of theories never backed by experiment
has resulted in institutions that now oppose the advancement of
physics. With mortgages to be paid and families to be supported, who
can afford truth and beauty after investing thirty years into mythology
and group-think? Smolin is to be commended for firing a warning shot
across the bow of all young physicists-letting them know that they, if
they are to be true physicists, are essentially on their own. For the
advancement of science has ever been the domain of the individual, as
has the creation of all lasting art, philosophy, literature, and
culture. Make no mistake-the individual truth seeker is not alone in
the context of the greats-they stand upon the shoulders of giants-but
they are often alone in the context of their contemporaries. String
Theory, by deconstructing great physicists and science, has tried to
invert this, placing politics over philosophy and money over meaning,
and that is why they are destined to fail. For as Shakespeare said,
"foul deeds will rise, thou all the earth overwhelm them, to men's
eyes."

"What has my generation has bequeathed to these young scientists? Ideas
and techniques they may or may not want to use, together with a
cautionary tale of partial success in several directions, resulting in
a general failure to finish the job Einstein started a hundred years
ago. The worst thing we could do would be to hold them back by
insisting that they work on our ideas. So the question for the last
part of the book is a question I ask myself every morning: Are we doing
all we can to support and encourage young scientist-and, by the virtue
of this, ourselves-to transcend what we have done these last thirty
years and find the true theory that solves the five greatest problems
in physics?" -Lee Smolin, The trouble With Physics, The Rise of String
Theory, The Fall of Science, and What Comes Next

I would encourage young physicists to spend a couple hours reviewing
Moving Dimensions Theory. It already answers two of Smolin's "five
great questions."

http://physicsmathforums.com

How can photons display both wave and particle properties? The
fundamental photon propagates as a spherical wave-front, surfing the
fourth expanding dimension. This is because the fourth expanding
dimension appears as a spherical wavefront as it expands through the
three spatial dimensions. The act of measurement localizes the photon's
momenergy, taking it out of the expanding fourth dimension and trapping
it in the three stationary spatial dimensions, and it appears as a
localized particle, trapped by electrons as it blackens a grain on a
photographic plate.

How can matter display both wave and particle properties? The
fundamental electron is abuzz with photons. Photons are continually
being emitted into the fourth expanding dimension and reabsorbed by the
electron. The continual dance with these photons gives the electron its
wave properties. Nothing moves without photons which up the net
probability that the combine momenergy will be in the expanding fourth
dimension. The more photons one adds to an object, the greater the
chance it has of existing in the expanding fourth dimension, and thus
it moves.

Why are there non-local effects in quantum mechanics? The fourth
dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions. That
means that what begins as a point in the fourth dimension is a sphere
with a 186,000 mile radius one second later. So it is that the entire
spherical wavefront of the photon exists in the exact same place in
time. Hence the non-locality observed in double slit experiments, the
EPR effect, and quantum entanglement. Take two interacting spin ½
photons and let them propagate at the speed of c in opposite
directions. They are yet at the exact same place in time! And too, they
are yet in the exact same place of the fourth expanding dimension.

Why does time stop at the speed of light?
Time depends on the emission and propagation of photons. If no photons
are emitted, time does not occur. This holds true whether the clock is
an unwinding copper spring, a biological system such as a heart, or an
oscillating quartz crystal. No photom emission=no time! As an object
approaches the speed of light, its ability to emit photons without
reabsorbing them diminishes. An object traveling at the speed of light
cannot emit a photon.

How come a photon does not age?
A photon represents momenergy rotated entirely into the fourth
expanding dimension. A photon stays the exact same place in the fourth
dimension, no matter how far it travels. A photon stays the exact same
place in time, no matter how far it travels. Again, time is not the
fourth dimension, but in inherits properties of the fourth dimension.

Why are inertial mass and gravitational mass the same thing?

Why do moving bodies exhibit length contraction?
Movement is always accompanied by a shortening in length. This is
because the only way for a body to move is for it to undergo a rotation
into the forth dimension, which is expanding relative to the three
spatial dimensions. The more energy an electron has, the more photons
it possesses, and the higher probability it exists in the expanding
fourth dimension. Hence its length appears contracted as perceived from
the three spatial dimensions.

Why are mass and energy equivalent?
The fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial
dimensions. That means that a baseball sitting on a lab table
stationary in our three-dimensional inertial reference frame, is yet
moving at a fantastic velocity relative to the fourth dimension. Hence
every seemingly stationary mass has a vast energy, as given by E=mc2.
In a nuclear reaction matter is rotated into the expanding fourth
dimension, appearing as high-enegry photons (gamma rays) propagating at
the same velocity of the fourth expanding dimension-c.

Why does time's arrow point in the direction it points in? The fourth
dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions. Hence
every photon naturally expands in a spherically symmetric manner. Hence
every electron, or piece of matter that interacts with photons, is
naturally carried outward from a central point in a spherically
symmetric manner. Hence the particles in a drop of dye in a swimming
pool dissipate in a spherically symmetric manner, and are never
reunited. Hence time's arrow and entropy.

Why do photons appear as spherically-symmetric wavefronts traveling at
a velocity c? The fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three
spatial dimensions at the velocity c. Hence photons, which are tiny
packets of momenergy rotated entirely into the fourth dimension, appear
as spherically-symmetric wavefronts propagating at the velocity c.

Why is there a minus sign in the following metric?
x^2+y^2+z^2-c^2t^2=s^2
The fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial
dimensions at the velocity c. Hence the only way to stay still in the
space-time continuum, and to achieve a 0 interval, is to move with the
velocity of light.

What deeper reality underlies Einstein's postulates of relativity?
The fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial
dimensions at the velocity c. This single postulate assures that the
speed of light is constant for all observers and that the laws of
physics are the same in all inertial frames.

What deeper reality underlies Newton's laws?
Newton's laws are an approximation of relativity and quantum mechanics,
and as MDT underlies QM & relativity, it underlies Newton's laws.

Why is an increase in velocity always accompanied by a decrease in
length as measured by an external observer? All increases in velocity
are accompanied by rotations into the fourth dimension. All particles
can be represented by momenergy 4-vectors. The greater the momenrgy
component in the expanding fourth dimension, the greater the velocity
and speed of the particle. Rest mass is the invariant here. It never
changes. It prefers the three spatial dimensions. In order for it to
move, one must gain energy in the form of photons. These photons prefer
the fourth expanding dimension. The more photons one adds, the greater
the component of the momenergy 4-vector that appears in the fourth
expanding dimension, the more energy the particle has, the shorter it
appears, and the faster it moves.

How MDT Is Aiding Fellow Physicists

"The conclusions from Bell's theorem are philosophically startling;
either one must totally abandon the realistic philosophy of most
working scientists or dramatically revise our concept of space-time."
-Abner Shimony and John Clauser

Moving Dimensions Theory provides this new concept of space-time. The
vast ambitions of most tenure-track physicists, including string
theorists and LQG hypers, causes them to focus on irrelevant, minute
questions, and thus, though funded by millions for over thirty years,
have not yet been able to string the bow. Deeper, true physicists, such
as Abner Shimony and John Clauser are alert to the fact that physics
need news ideas.
The expanding fourth dimension gives rise to non-local phenomena and
quantum entanglement, as the expanding fourth dimension means that two
events separated in the three spatial dimensions can yet appear to be
at the exact same place in the fourth dimension. MDT thus provides the
new concept of space-time.

"For me, then, this is the real problem with quantum theory: the
apparently essential conflict between any sharp formulation and
fundamental relativity. It may be that a real synthesis of quantum and
relativity theories requires not just technical developments but
radical conceptual renewal." -John Bell

Moving Dimensions Theory provides this radical conceptual renewal. The
expanding fourth dimension gives rise to non-local phenomena and
quantum entanglement, as the expanding fourth dimension means that two
events separated in the three spatial dimensions can yet appear to be
at the exact same place in the fourth dimension. MDT thus provides the
new concept of space-time.

"Entanglement is not one but rather the characteristic trait of quantum
mechanics." -Erwin Schrodinger

The expanding fourth dimension gives rise to non-local phenomena and
quantum entanglement, as the expanding fourth dimension means that two
events separated in the three spatial dimensions can yet be at the
exact same place in the fourth dimension. MDT thus provides the new
concept of space-time.

"For me, then, this is the real problem with quantum theory: the
apparently essential conflict between any sharp formulation and
fundamental relativity. It may be that a real synthesis of quantum and
relativity theories requires not just technical developments but
radical conceptual renewal." -John Bell

Moving Dimensions Theory provides this radical conceptual renewal. The
expanding fourth dimension gives rise to non-local phenomena and
quantum entanglement, as the expanding fourth dimension means that two
events separated in the three spatial dimensions can yet appear to be
at the exact same place in the fourth dimension. MDT thus provides the
new concept of space-time.

"Entanglement is not one but rather the characteristic trait of quantum
mechanics." -Erwin Schrodinger

The expanding fourth dimension gives rise to non-local phenomena and
quantum entanglement, as the expanding fourth dimension means that two
events separated in the three spatial dimensions can yet be at the
exact same place in the fourth dimension. MDT thus provides the new
concept of space-time.