I've just read: Maybe the math behind string theory is overrated anyways by John Timmer over at Ars Tecnica, and I am very dissapointed Ars actually let such nonsense through...
It seems the panel as well was just as missguided; I am rather saddened some scientists may actually think such things... I would have assumed scientists, above other profesionals, would appriciate the role of mathematics in human expression, much less insinuate abandoning it as a form of expressing scietific thought.
- Gödel's theorem would suggest: Mathematics is not God.
- Moreover, complexity theory would suggest: Science is not reality.
So, yes, it seems Mathematics will always be incomplete, and yet, it's own requirement for consistency has led to this very same proof. Science, as well, will never know if any given interpretation is indeed 'reality', but it's very ability to predict / simulate reality is the reason we have come to this realization. I cannot fathom how thinking minds would consider these notions as failures!
Sometimes, we expect too much from this world, which, by the ways seams to seriously prefer consistency over completeness. Given the following examples:
- all knowing parents.
- genies and other wish granters.
- gods
- re-birth, or re-incarnation
- an eternal universe
- perpetual motion machines, or free energy
- winning the lottery
- the tooth fairy, leprecauns and other such beasts
This is not to the exclusion of our ability to dream. Quite the contrary, to me, mathematics and science belong at the summit of the human dream; they are our dreams brought to life and tested againt life itself. As we continue to dream, our thoughts in mathematics and science will continue to grow and allow us a truely wider window into this wonder that is existence.
String theorists have never enjoyed Occam's razor, but this is rediculous...
