> 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.