Some people might ask:
"What IS this guy's problem?"
Well, let me explain.
I have watched theoretical physics descend
into untestable pseudoscience over the last
few decades, and it is very disturbing to anyone
who loves testable natural philosophy and
experimental science.
First it was the hordes of unobservable particles,
then the untestable and childishly idealistic
cosmological assumptions, then the whole
string theory excursion into la-la land, then
the deplorable "anthropic reasoning", then
the 10^500 random "multiverses", then the
"Boltzmann Brains" [egad!].
When I learned about the Nielsen/Ninomiya
papers it was like a "call to arms". The fact
that one cannot be entirely sure if the authors
intended to be taken seriously, or if the whole
fiasco is an elaborate hoax, just makes the
insult to science that much worse.
I would roughly estimate that 50% of current
theoretical physics, including the most
"fashionable" brands, are untestable pseudoscience
at best, and Platonic twittery if we are being candid.
People like Einstein and Schroedinger have been
replaced by execrable "natural pilosophers" who
may be very adept at abstract and hermetic
analytical methods, but who seem to have little
or no intercourse with the real world of nature.
The sycophants follow like sheep because they
feel it is not their role to question the Glass Bead
Game.
Well, I could go on at great length, but now you
know what the "problem" is. The question is:
What is to be done about it?
Hoping for a new paradigm,
and a definitively testable
paradigm, at that,
RLO
www.amherst.edu/~rloldershaw