Nobel Prize-winning physicist Roger Penrose questions some of the most
fashionable ideas in physics today, including string theory
What can fashionable ideas, blind faith, or pure fantasy possibly have
to do with the scientific quest to understand the universe? Surely,
theoretical physicists are immune to mere trends, dogmatic beliefs, or
flights of fancy? In fact, acclaimed physicist and bestselling author
Roger Penrose argues that researchers working at the extreme frontiers
of physics are just as susceptible to these forces as anyone else. In
this provocative book, he argues that fashion, faith, and fantasy, while
sometimes productive and even essential in physics, may be leading
today's researchers astray in three of the field's most important
areas--string theory, quantum mechanics, and cosmology.
Arguing that string theory has veered away from physical reality by
positing six extra hidden dimensions, Penrose cautions that the
fashionable nature of a theory can cloud our judgment of its
plausibility. In the case of quantum mechanics, its stunning success in
explaining the atomic universe has led to an uncritical faith that it
must also apply to reasonably massive objects, and Penrose responds by
suggesting possible changes in quantum theory. Turning to cosmology, he
argues that most of the current fantastical ideas about the origins of
the universe cannot be true, but that an even wilder reality may lie
behind them. Finally, Penrose describes how fashion, faith, and fantasy
have ironically also shaped his own work, from twistor theory, a
possible alternative to string theory that is beginning to acquire a
fashionable status, to "conformal cyclic cosmology," an idea so
fantastic that it could be called "conformal crazy cosmology."
The result is an important critique of some of the most significant
developments in physics today from one of its most eminent figures.
