Physics is Dying

Theoretical physicist Sabine Hossenfelder is angry. Sabine is finished with modern physics: This is why physics is dying: 20 years without progress:

• We are endlessly arguing about irrelevant questions.
• This is why physics is dying.
• Loop Quantum Gravity and String Theory cannot be tested.
• Same thing with Supersymmetry and Inflation and Dark Sectors. 
• I do not understand why people get paid for this. 
• Research bubbles of mathematical fiction without connection to reality.
• I cannot believe that this is still going on.
• We are seeing the beginning of a collapse of the foundations of physics.
• These people sit on cosy tax paid positions with no other task than producing useless papers.

This is also my impression.

But what do you do when you understand the theory, which is the very foundation of your academic position, does not work? If you do not see a new theory that you could jump to? Is this what is frustrating Sabine so very much?

A scientific theory is like an Empire and Empires do not fall without much fight and anger. 

Does Sabine Hossenfelder Exist?

Sabine Hossenfelder on BackReaction claims herself to be a modern physicist expressing truths about the state of modern physics:

• I do not know what it means for something to be “real” or “true.” You will have to consult a philosopher on that.
• If you want to claim that the Higgs-boson does not exist, you have to demonstrate that the theory which contains the mathematical structure called “Higgs-boson” does not fit the data. Whether or not Higgs-bosons ever arrive in a detector is totally irrelevant.
• Here is a homework assignment: Do you think that I exist? And what do you even mean by that?
• From November on, I will be unemployed, at least that is what it presently looks like: If you don't exist, can you be employed?

If this is the truth, no wonder that modern physics is in a state of crisis.

But Sabine's criticism of modern physics appears well founded and thus admirable. At the price of making employment difficult, which is even more admirable.  But she is not alone saying that modern  physics in a state of stalemate crisis without progress, as evidenced in the new book
The Universe Speaks in Numbers by Graham Farmelo summing up:

• ...the slow rate of progress of the string framework may presage a more sedate pace in fundamental physics that may persist for centuries to come.

Of course the pessimism of deep crisis can be turned around into its opposite, as expressed by the leading star of modern physics Arkani-Hamed: 

• There has never been a better, more exciting time to be a theoretical physicist.

Concerning the crisis of modern physics it is commonly accepted that one reason is that the two basic building blocks, relativity theory and quantum mechanics, are contradictory/incompatile . If you dig a little deeper you will find that the underlying reason is that both theories are unphysical as exposed in detail as Many-Minds Relativity and Real Quantum Mechanics and also here.

Two theories which are physical cannot be contradictory, because physics which exists cannot be contradictory. But unphysical theories may well be contradictory, as ghosts can have contradictory qualities.

The Special Theory of Relativity of Einstein is unphysical because the Lorentz transformation is not a transformation between physical coordinates, as strongly underlined by its inventor Lorentz, but misunderstood by the patent clerk Einstein believing that the transformed time is real and thus that time is relative. Quantum Mechanics is unphysical because its interpretation is statistical which makes it non-physical, because physics is not an insurance company. Here Einstein was right understanding that God does not play dice.

Concerning the crisis of modern physics, listen to

• Alexander Unzicker 
• Bill Gaede (with Quora comments)
• Hartwig Thim on Einstein's relativity

It is comforting to see that I am not alone in my criticism of relativity theory and quantum mechanics.

It is impossible to discuss these things with main stream physicists, since their common wisdom is that neither relativity theory nor quantum mechanics can be understood as rational science.

An example of the confusion is the hype about quantum computing with the sound criticism by Dyakonov in The Case Against Quantum Computing of course being dismissed by main stream physicist Lubos.

The confusion is exposed in an exhibition combining arts and science about quantum mechanics at Center for Contemporary Culture in Barcelona commented on at BackReaction. Here is an artistic expression of the quantum leap of an electron which infuriated Schrödinger:

In this context you are invited to a previous post on the true meaning of Planck's constant $h$ shows The text book view is that $h$ is a fundamental quantum of action connecting the energy
$E=h\nu$ to a particle/photon of light of frequency $\nu$ according the Planck-Einstein relation with light viewed as a stream of discrete particles/photons.

But it is not at all necessary to view light this way to understand the true meaning of Planck's constant, which is revealed through the way it is measured, that is through the photoelectric effect which simply connects light frequency to the energy unit of electronVolt.

Einstein gave a heuristic explanation of the photoelectric effect from an idea of light as a stream of particles. By the common Aristotle logical fallacy of confirming the assumption by observing the consequence, this has convinced modern physicists that light indeed consists of a stream of particles, which however is against all scientific rationale and a basic reason for the crisis of modern (particle) physics. Schrödinger understood that there are no particles. See posts on the photoelectric effect showing that it does not require Einstein's particle heuristics to be understood; wave mechanics serves much better!     

Yes, Quantum Mechanics Is Wrong

Sabine Hossenfelder on BackReaction has become a truth-teller about the state of modern physics, and now she tells the truth about quantum mechanics: It is wrong:

• Yes, I am sorry. But I have a message for you from the depth of abstract math: We know that quantum mechanics is wrong. 

The same idea has been expressed by almost every notable physicist, including Roger Penrose:

• Physics Is Wrong, From String Theory to Quantum Mechanics.

This is a funny situation, unprecedented in the history of science, and it has been like that for now

more than 100 years. 

A restart is obviously needed and my contribution is Real Quantum Mechanics. Take a look! And think! See also recent posts.

But Sabine Hossenfelder is a physicist and thus must seek to rescue the hopeless situation in one way or the other:

• And whatever your misgivings are about quantum mechanics, there is no denying that it is useful.

So quantum mechanics is wrong, but it is nevertheless useful? That does not make sense. A theory which is wrong cannot be truly useful, because from something which is wrong cannot come something which is right. Only if the theory is right in some sense, can it be useful. But no physicist has any clue to what is right about quantum mechanics, only what is wrong!

Sabine Hossenfelder resorts to the common trick of referring to yet a more incomprehensible theory in the form of Quantum Field Theory, when basic Quantum Theory is questioned. This was used by
Einstein when he increased the bet to general relativity when his special theory of relativity was questioned on most rational grounds. This 

Free Will and Quantum Mechanics

Sabine Hossenfelder on BackReaction believes that quantum mechanics says that humans do not have a free will:

• Physics deals with the most fundamental laws of nature, those from which everything else derives. These laws are, to our best current knowledge, differential equations. Given those equations and the configuration of a system at one particular time, you can calculate what happens at all other times. 
• That is for what the universe without quantum mechanics is concerned. Add quantum mechanics, and you introduce a random element into some events. Importantly, this randomness in quantum mechanics is irreducible. It is not due to lack of information. In quantum mechanics, some things that happen are just not determined, and nothing you or I or anyone can do will determine them.
• Taken together, this means that the part of your future which is not already determined is due to random chance. It therefore makes no sense to say that humans have free will.

This is an expression of the monumental confusion of modern physicists caused by the idea that atoms play games of roulette attributed to quantum mechanics as being based on Schrödinger's multidimensional wave equation, something which Einstein and Schrödinger never accepted.

I have followed a different line of thought viewing physics as forms of analog computation with finite precision, which can be simulated by digital computation with finite precision presented at The World as Computation including a new approach to quantum mechanics as Real Quantum Mechanics without games of roulette. 

In this world there is room for humans with free will, although you cannot control everything in your life, due to lack of precision. If you are not an addicted gambler this may be the world for you.

Determined or Random??

PS The idea that atoms play games of roulette has corrupted modern physics into incomprehensible voodoo-science. Macroscopics as complex systems of simple microscopics can express random behavior, but random microscopics destroys cause-effect and demands contradictory microscopics of microscopics. Contradictory science is voodoo-science, even if it is text book modern physics.