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TraderJoe
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Ten physics problems for the next millenium ?

August 7th, 2008, 10:27 pm

QuoteAre all the (measurable) dimensionless parameters that characterize the physical universe calculable in principle or are some merely determined by historical or quantum mechanical accident and uncalculable? David Gross, Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara How can quantum gravity help explain the origin of the universe? Edward Witten, California Institute of Technology and Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton What is the lifetime of the proton and how do we understand it? Steve Gubser, Princeton University and California Institute of Technology Is Nature supersymmetric, and if so, how is supersymmetry broken? Sergio Ferrara, CERN (European Laboratory of Particle Physics) Gordon Kane, University of Michigan Why does the universe appear to have one time and three space dimensions? Shamit Kachru, University of California, Berkeley Sunil Mukhi, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Hiroshi Ooguri, California Institute of Technology Why does the cosmological constant have the value that it has, is it zero and is it really constant? Andrew Chamblin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Renata Kallosh, Stanford University What are the fundamental degrees of freedom of M-theory (the theory whose low-energy limit is eleven-dimensional supergravity and which subsumes the five consistent superstring theories) and does the theory describe Nature? Louise Dolan, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Annamaria Sinkovics, Spinoza Institute Billy & Linda Rose, San Antonio College What is the resolution of the black hole information paradox? Tibra Ali, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Cambridge Samir Mathur, Ohio State University What physics explains the enormous disparity between the gravitational scale and the typical mass scale of the elementary particles? Matt Strassler, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton Can we quantitatively understand quark and gluon confinement in Quantum Chromodynamics and the existence of a mass gap? Igor Klebanov, Princeton University Oyvind Tafjord, McGill University 10 problems.
 
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aiQUANT
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Ten physics problems for the next millenium ?

August 8th, 2008, 7:28 am

Is it worthwhile spending time and money on this kind of research? What difference will it make?
Last edited by aiQUANT on August 7th, 2008, 10:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 
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Panoramix
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Ten physics problems for the next millenium ?

August 8th, 2008, 7:39 am

It is in situations like these i would like to have studied physics: not to solve these problems, but just to understand what they are talking about!
 
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rmax
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Ten physics problems for the next millenium ?

August 8th, 2008, 11:22 am

Pretty good questions - would still like a resolution to the Wave Function Collapse paradox and why we get large structures such as galaxies forming. Evidence of Super-String theory (# of posts with TJ banging on about it doesn't count).Other than that pretty good list, but I don't think it has changed much in 10 yrs, possibly even as long as 20. Lets face it Physics is dead at the moment.
 
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hungryquant
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Ten physics problems for the next millenium ?

August 8th, 2008, 11:39 am

QuoteOriginally posted by: rmaxPretty good questions - would still like a resolution to the Wave Function Collapse paradox and why we get large structures such as galaxies forming. Evidence of Super-String theory (# of posts with TJ banging on about it doesn't count).Other than that pretty good list, but I don't think it has changed much in 10 yrs, possibly even as long as 20. Lets face it Physics is dead at the moment.worry ye not, large particle smashy type machine should give it the boost it needs : )
 
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TraderJoe
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Ten physics problems for the next millenium ?

August 8th, 2008, 3:53 pm

QuoteOriginally posted by: aiQUANTIs it worthwhile spending time and money on this kind of research? What difference will it make?What kind of an arrogant, lazy schmuck asks a question like this ? Where do you think your laptop, mobile phone, television, radio, the Internet, radar, nuclear energy came from exactly? Outer space? No, they were a product of research done in physics labs around the Western world. Whilst no one in 1905 was predicting laptops (not even Einstein) so no one alive today can predict what the world will look like in 2105, let alone 3105. Time travel, alternative energy sources, quantum computing, worm holes, time travel plus a hundred other things we can't possibly predict may be around. Even if some dictator outlawed such resaerch it would still go on as it is an integral part of human nature to want to explore the natural world that we live in.
 
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aiQUANT
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Ten physics problems for the next millenium ?

August 8th, 2008, 4:38 pm

TJ can you pick one topic from the list you quote and explain why it is necessary to research. Convince me. I'm lazy dumb schmuck.
 
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Traden4Alpha
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Joined: September 20th, 2002, 8:30 pm

Ten physics problems for the next millenium ?

August 8th, 2008, 8:36 pm

QuoteOriginally posted by: TraderJoeQuoteOriginally posted by: aiQUANTIs it worthwhile spending time and money on this kind of research? What difference will it make?What kind of an arrogant, lazy schmuck asks a question like this ? Where do you think your laptop, mobile phone, television, radio, the Internet, radar, nuclear energy came from exactly? Outer space? No, they were a product of research done in physics labs around the Western world. Whilst no one in 1905 was predicting laptops (not even Einstein) so no one alive today can predict what the world will look like in 2105, let alone 3105. Time travel, alternative energy sources, quantum computing, worm holes, time travel plus a hundred other things we can't possibly predict may be around. Even if some dictator outlawed such resaerch it would still go on as it is an integral part of human nature to want to explore the natural world that we live in.This line of logic is guilty of the same extrapolation that gave us the subprime mortgage crisis -- that the trends of the past will be the trends of the future. Just because physics was a productive source of inventions in the past is no reason for it to be a source of productive inventions in the future (especially will respect to the required investment).The reason the physics of the past gave us so much (and the physics of the future is likely to deliver so little) is in the scale of physics. The physics underlying "the laptop, mobile phone, television, radio, the Internet, radar" were all low energy, low-scale phenomena. Even nuclear energy is modest-scale physical phenomenon -- my university had a small reactor in the basement of the engineering building that can't have cost more than a $1 million. In contrast, those top 10 questions are largely about scales of time, distance, and energy that are many orders of magnitude outside what is biologically and economical compatible. For example, is it even that likely that one could cheaply produce and store Higgs bosons in kilogram quantities and that doing so would be useful?I'll will agree that these questions are intellectually interesting, but I doubt they will provide the same economic ROI that early 20th century physics did. The physics of today costs far too much and deals with phenomena that are far too outside the realm of everyday phenomena. I'm sure that answering these 10 questions will have some economic ROI, but that this ROI will be miniscule compared the ROI created by answering the top 10 physics questions of 1908. That is, physics has picked all the low hanging fruit.As an aside, I wonder: are these the right "top 10"? Perhaps that should be the #1 question because some of these top 10 questions may be implied by theories that Pauli would call "not even wrong."
 
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farmer
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Ten physics problems for the next millenium ?

August 8th, 2008, 9:18 pm

QuoteOriginally posted by: Traden4AlphaI'm sure that answering these 10 questions will have some economic ROI, but that this ROI will be miniscule compared the ROI created by answering the top 10 physics questions of 1908.If you could stabilize and stretch wormoles, you could make a really fast express package-delivery service. But I remember concluding it can't be done. Though I don't remember what led me to that conclusion.
 
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TraderJoe
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Ten physics problems for the next millenium ?

August 8th, 2008, 10:15 pm

I won't even waste my breath, except to say that ... nah, never mind.
 
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farmer
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Ten physics problems for the next millenium ?

August 8th, 2008, 10:41 pm

QuoteOriginally posted by: TraderJoeI won't even waste my breath, except to say that ... nah, never mind.Joe, you're not even mediocre. I have made a bigger contribution to physics than you.
 
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TraderJoe
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Ten physics problems for the next millenium ?

August 8th, 2008, 10:51 pm

QuoteOriginally posted by: rmaxPretty good questions - would still like a resolution to the Wave Function Collapse paradox and why we get large structures such as galaxies forming. Evidence of Super-String theory (# of posts with TJ banging on about it doesn't count).Other than that pretty good list, but I don't think it has changed much in 10 yrs, possibly even as long as 20. Lets face it Physics is dead at the moment.I totally disagree. Having said that, remember that physics is like fine art - it cannot and should not be rushed. God will reveal the secrets of His universe(s) in His own time.It appears that biophysics (aka genetic engineering) is promising to open up new frontiers of scientific advancement and may herald a brave new world over the next century .
 
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TraderJoe
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Ten physics problems for the next millenium ?

August 8th, 2008, 10:54 pm

QuoteOriginally posted by: farmerQuoteOriginally posted by: TraderJoeI won't even waste my breath, except to say that ... nah, never mind.Joe, you're not even mediocre.We're all here for a purpose, farmer.
 
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TraderJoe
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Ten physics problems for the next millenium ?

August 8th, 2008, 11:03 pm

QuoteOriginally posted by: aiQUANTTJ can you pick one topic from the list you quote and explain why it is necessary to research. Convince me. I'm lazy dumb schmuck.Listen schmucko. Don't you want to know the number of dimensions you even live in???? Why is it 11 and not 9 (for example?). How many universes there are? Was there a big crunch or did we actually start at t = 0. Why do we see the particles we see and why are the interactions between them the type and the strength that they are? Why are we here? Oh please, get the f**k out of my way. It is as necessary to ask these questions and to research as it is to be human. They are the same thing. Now please, if you don't mind, I have things to contemplate .
 
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TraderJoe
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Ten physics problems for the next millenium ?

August 8th, 2008, 11:19 pm

QuoteOriginally posted by: Traden4AlphaQuoteOriginally posted by: TraderJoeQuoteOriginally posted by: aiQUANTIs it worthwhile spending time and money on this kind of research? What difference will it make?What kind of an arrogant, lazy schmuck asks a question like this ? Where do you think your laptop, mobile phone, television, radio, the Internet, radar, nuclear energy came from exactly? Outer space? No, they were a product of research done in physics labs around the Western world. Whilst no one in 1905 was predicting laptops (not even Einstein) so no one alive today can predict what the world will look like in 2105, let alone 3105. Time travel, alternative energy sources, quantum computing, worm holes, time travel plus a hundred other things we can't possibly predict may be around. Even if some dictator outlawed such resaerch it would still go on as it is an integral part of human nature to want to explore the natural world that we live in.This line of logic is guilty of the same extrapolation that gave us the subprime mortgage crisis -- that the trends of the past will be the trends of the future. Just because physics was a productive source of inventions in the past is no reason for it to be a source of productive inventions in the future (especially will respect to the required investment).The reason the physics of the past gave us so much (and the physics of the future is likely to deliver so little) is in the scale of physics. The physics underlying "the laptop, mobile phone, television, radio, the Internet, radar" were all low energy, low-scale phenomena. Even nuclear energy is modest-scale physical phenomenon -- my university had a small reactor in the basement of the engineering building that can't have cost more than a $1 million. In contrast, those top 10 questions are largely about scales of time, distance, and energy that are many orders of magnitude outside what is biologically and economical compatible. For example, is it even that likely that one could cheaply produce and store Higgs bosons in kilogram quantities and that doing so would be useful?I'll will agree that these questions are intellectually interesting, but I doubt they will provide the same economic ROI that early 20th century physics did. The physics of today costs far too much and deals with phenomena that are far too outside the realm of everyday phenomena. I'm sure that answering these 10 questions will have some economic ROI, but that this ROI will be miniscule compared the ROI created by answering the top 10 physics questions of 1908. That is, physics has picked all the low hanging fruit.As an aside, I wonder: are these the right "top 10"? Perhaps that should be the #1 question because some of these top 10 questions may be implied by theories that Pauli would call "not even wrong."I have never heard so much arrogant and pompous twaddle in all my life! Physics isn't about collecting a box of protons. You sound like the halfwit at IBM in the 1940's who said he sees the the need for no more than 6 computers in the world. Or some people at the end if the 1890's who said that physics was all but done - along came quantum theory a few years later and boy, did they ever look stupid. I guess to be fair to you, there are two points here: 1) an appreciation of physics (which you obviously haven't got) and 2) the dangers of prediction, especially about the future . Anyway, happy reading.