Not even wrong

[Barrett Dorko]

I want to promote a specific podcast today, Rationally Speaking, produced by the New York Skeptics.

In the April 25th edition physicist Peter Woit talks about the problems inherent to string theory and how those relate to its tentative connection to science itself. As I listened I couldn’t help but think about the models and theories to which we refer and often cling to in therapy.

I understand how powerful they might or might not be as explanatory, but wonder at how accurately predictive they are. I wonder at their ability to describe what we see and hear in terms of the deep model that forms them without becoming increasingly complex. That would specifically violate Einstein’s concept of “beauty” when it comes to the principles that reside within any original idea, and I’d like to think that my favorite theories are at the very least attractive.

Most of all, I wonder why such fundamental questions aren’t usually asked of those who propose the theories we espouse.