Today's physics has led to incredible advances in the technology we use in daily life - from cell phones and GPS systems to PET scans and more. Current theories in physics have been amazingly effective in practical terms. Yet all is far from well: the two foundational concepts in physics - Quantum Theory and General Relativity - are incompatible with each other, and observations of the universe show that our theories are incomplete - at best.
While physicists have tried to paper over this impasse by inventing dark matter and dark energy, they remain unobserved mysteries. Adding fuel to the fire of current crises, artificial intelligence threatens to replace our most cherished theories and procedures with arcane algorithms. Worse yet perhaps, the public understands physics poorly, either taking it for granted or fearing and rejecting it completely.
Physicists dream of a new universal theory that will completely change how we see our world, much as Einstein did with relativity and Newton with gravity. Likewise, society loves the romantic notion of a single genius heroically creating a massive paradigm shift. Still, is this scenario likely today? Perhaps the next steps in physics will be incremental rather than gigantic.
In Physics in Crisis, Bruno Mansoulié uses simple language, insightful examples, and his personal experience as a working physicist to address these fundamental questions and reflect on how today's crises in physics might be solved.
Author(s): Bruno Mansoulié
Publisher: World Scientific Publishing
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 169
City: London
Contents
Preface
About the Author
About the Translator
Chapter 1 Physics: At the Heart of the Crisis in Fundamental Science
Society in Crisis
The Crisis in Physics
The New Conditions: Artificial Intelligence and “Big Data”
Back to the Beginning: What Is a Physical Law?
Chapter 2 The Success and Limits of Today’s Physics
Toward Small Distances
The Success of the Atomic Hypothesis
From Becquerel to the Higgs Boson
Toward Big Distances
Newton and Universal Gravitation
Einstein, Current Cosmology, and the Big Bang
Today’s Big Questions
Dark Matter and Energy
Problems with the Standard Model
Irreconcilable General Relativity and Quantum Theory: Superstrings
The Paradox in Today’s Physics
Chapter 3 Understanding the World
Accepting or Understanding
Animism, Monotheism, and Science
Scientific Consistency
Alternate Facts
Chapter 4 What Is a Law of Physics?
Modeling and Parameterizing: The Ideal Gas Law
The Ideal Gas Law and Temperature
Patterns in Nature: Scales
What’s a Good Law of Physics?
Domain of Validity, Extrapolation, Boundaries
Chapter 5 Accurate, False, Incomplete, and Natural Laws
Induction and Falsification: Popper
Between False, Incomplete, and Untestable Laws
Naturalness
Chapter 6 Modern Physics and Intuition
Representing Nature
The Question of “Reality” (Quickly Dropped)
The Question of Instruments
The Turn of the 20th Century: Relativity and Quantum Theory
A Few Neurological/Psychological/Sociological Questions
Chapter 7 Can We (Really) Change Paradigms?
Unexpected Discoveries
To Really Challenge Concepts
Other Ways of Thinking in Physics
Education and Conformity
Chapter 8 The End of Physics 1: Anthropic Solutions
The Anthropic Principle
The Multiverse
Between Reductionism and Anthropism
Chapter 9 The End of Physics 2: Algorithms and Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence in a Few Words
The Example of Experimental Particle Physics
Can We Do Without Theory?
Chapter 10 The End of Physics 3: Disenchantment
The Original Sin: The Atomic Bomb and Its Use in 1945
Overcoming Mistakes: The Example of Global Warming
Chapter 11 A New Age of Enlightenment?
The Age of Enlightenment
Current Successes in Physics and Some Future Paths for Revolution
An Age of Enlightenment Today?
Chapter 12 Toward a Rationalist Spirituality
Science and Aesthetics
Science and Spirituality
Integrating Artificial Intelligence
Total Mindfulness, Total Awareness
Toward a Rationalist Spirituality
Chapter 13 Believing in Physics Despite the Crises (or Because of Them)?
Index
