String Theory = Theory of Everything?

Peter Woit on Note Even Wrong recalls a podcast with Eli Frenkel about string theory:

• In particular, one thing that happened to Frenkel since last spring is that he attended Strings 2023 and gave a talk there (slides here, video here). The experience opened his eyes to just how bad some of the long-standing problems with string theory have gotten, and starting around here in the podcast he has a lot to say about them.
• It’s pretty clear that his reaction to what he saw going on at the conference was colored by his experience growing up in late Soviet-era Russia, where the failure of the system had become clear to everyone, but you weren’t supposed to say anything about this. He pins responsibility for this situation on senior leaders of the field, who have been unwilling to admit failure.

String theory was initiated in the 1970s as a grand attempt to unite all forces into a Theory of Everything ToE. My good friend Lars Brink at Chalmers was one of the early pioneers with a thesis in 1973 and subsequent work with all the senior leaders during a 50 year career until Sept 2022 when he had to give up his search for a ToE. A Memorial Meeting took place on the web Febr 18 2023 remembering a great physicist.

According to Eli Frenkel, sad to say, string theory has not delivered a credible ToE and so it is time to move on to something different building on the experience of a failed attempt. But this is not what the  leaders of string theory still alive are saying, which creates a big problem for the young generation asking for guidance and hope/inspiration for a career in physics. String theory? If not string theory, what then? What has fundamental physics de facto delivered the last 50 years? Why are the foundations of modern physics (quantum mechanics and relativity) still incompatible after 100 years? Why is there a crisis in fundamental physics if its leaders are smartest on Earth?

Eli Frenkel gives a perspective that is important to listen to if you are a young scientist in search of a mission. Old professors/theories never die, they just fade way.