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Sabine won't be silenced

Long time readers of this blog will recognize the name Sabine Hossenfelder.


I have referred to her and ideas she has championed with some regularity.

I am sad to report that attempts have been made to silence Dr Hossenfelder and happy to add that she has resisted them, and appears likely to continue saying what she means for some time to come.  

Hossenfelder has a doctorate in theoretical physics from Goethe University Frankfurt.  Her dissertation, in 2003, looked at microscopic black-hole production.

Lately, she has acquired some prominence as a nemesis of what she considers bullshit in the world of science and of physics in particular.  She believes that physics as an academic field of research has guided itself into a dead end, where bullshit creation is incentivized.

Recently, for example, a distinguished scientific journal published a paper about the mathematical modeling of 'warp drive' as a way to get near and/or past the speed of light. The paper was then picked up by popular journals because what the authors were describing sounds appealingly like some popular-culture staples. Heck, one diagram included in the paper looks a bit like a blurry rendition of the familiar federation starship Enterprise. 

Hossenfelder will have none of it.  The paper is "meaningless," she reports. A perfect score on the bullshit meter.  She says it illustrates a playfulness with mathematical models that substitutes for actual science, and shows no understanding of the physical challenges that would be involved in instantiating the model, and that render such models just so many exercises in empty fantasy world building. 

Not surprisingly, there has been kickback directed toward someone so outspoken. If you've got 22 minutes, you can watch her dissect some of the kickback on YouTube.


She also acknowledges that she is "no longer affiliated with the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy." 

Their loss. 

Keep it up Doctor. Happy New Year everyone.  
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