The problem with Stephen Wolfram’s new “fundamental theory of physics”

Stephen Wolfram, computer scientist, physicist, and CEO of software company Wolfram Research (behind Wolfram Alpha and Mathematica) made headlines this week when he launched the Wolfram Physics Project. the blog post Announcing the project explains that he and his collaborators claim to have “found a way to the fundamental theory of physics,” that they “have built a paradigm and framework,” and that they now need help with all the calculations to see if it works. ORUnfortunately, it appears that Wolfram is using his wealth and influence to avoid responsible science.

Here is the bottom. It is absolutely true that Wolfram is an intelligent man; He has a PhD in particle physics from CalTech, which he completed at age 20. Then he studied computer simulations of cellular automata, which are essentially disk systems.units rete, like pixels on a screen, whbefore each unit evolves by following a set of rules related to the units around it as time goes by. John Conway Life game It is perhaps the most famous example of cellular automata, where after each successive unit of time, pixels are turned on or off based on the number of pixels that are turned on or off around them, causing complex shapes and behaviors to emerge from of basic rules. WOlfram began creating a successful software company, but in the meantime, he continued to research cellular automata. This led to his controversial but popular self-published 2002 book, A new kind of science, and now the Wolfram PhysiCs project, which is his new endeavor to recruit scientific talent to build a fundamental theory of the universe based on his research.

After decades of studying cellular automata, Wolfram, along with two other physicists, had the idea that the fundamental rules of physics were beginning to evolve from smaller, less meaningful rules, somewhat like how larger structures grow to from simpler steps in cellular automata. he was studying. Basically you’re saying that the universe runs on a basic set of rules, as a computer does, from which more complexity arises. Now the team is making a centralized effort to develop their theory into something bigger by testing their hypotheses. They are also posting your open source work and they are calling academics outside the centralized effort to know the proposal, verify calculations and run simulations. Essentially, they are asking academics from various fields to demonstrate that the framework explains their own disciplines, and they want physicists to make predictions based on The framework that experiments could test.

For those of you who want to review Wolfram’s proposal, there is a 448 page white paper online. But some physicists aren’t enthusiastic about Wolfram’s project, saying they are essentially buying influence in the field before awaiting peer review.

“In the physics community we have a process for evaluating new ideas called ‘peer review.’ Being wealthy is not a card to ‘get out of free peer review,'” said University of New Hampshire physics Chanda Prescod- Weinstein in a tweeted statement. “I refuse to give time to work [of] someone who does not respect the community standards that I must obey. I am sorry to see journalists cover this, which will surely have more press than any other black scientist who breaks barriers this year. ”

CalTech Physicist Sean Carrol tweeted: “Stephen Wolfram and his collaborators propose a new approach to physics based on discrete automata. Great and fun! But: please don’t get too excited until others check it out. Science is collaborative, it takes time, and most bold ideas are wrong. “

These criticisms reflect those who accompanied Wolfram’s book. But they boil down to the fact that Wolfram has cut himself off from the physics community, publishes his work, and promotes it to a large audience without subjecting it to a formal peer review process. So many Other scientists don’t take it seriously.

It is absolutely possible that Wolfram has stumbled upon a deeper truth about the universe. But right now, he is just another physicist with an idea. This idea should be taken as skeptically as any other which claims to explain the entire universe, which means that external experts must verify that it does not contain an obvious errorrs. Any strong hypothesis should be able to tell us something new and testable about the universe. While a Q + A on the matter says that the theory produces testable predictions, it also contains a troubling statement: Basically Wolfram says his idea cannot be proven wrong, and writes that “Any particular rule could be proven wrong if you disagree with the observations, for example, predicting particles that do not exist. But the general framework of our models it is somewhat more general and not so directly susceptible of experimental falsification. Asking how to falsify our framework is similar to asking how it would prove that calculus could not be a model for physics. An obvious answer would be another model that successfully provides a fundamental theory. of physics and it is shown that it is incompatible. ” In other words, Wolfram says you can only try it. bad inventing your own framework that solves everything mysterious in the cosmos.

A A broader view of Wolfram’s work and publication strategy reveals the uneven way in which new scientific ideas are treated. As a multi-millionaire (probably multimillionaire) who reflects the stereotype of loneliness, White man Genius, Wolfram is able to build a beautiful website, collaborate with collaborators, and get a lot of media coverage for push her idea at the forefront, outside the framework that other scientists have to operate. Meanwhile, last week, A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that students with low demographic representation tend to be more innovative but its their peers are more likely to drop contributions and less likely to move them to a tenure-tracking position. In other words, you probably wouldn’t be hearing about this new “fundamental theory of physics” if a black woman had come up with it.

Beyond that, the work promotes the unrealistic view that science is powered by Alone “Einsteins” appeared and rewrote everything with their paradigm explosion ideas. This is not like this works, even the work of Albert Einstein built on the research of physicists who preceded him and has requires testing by countless scientists since then. In Wolfram’s case, the job is correct at best, and history will remember Wolfram’s name for the research done by many people as part of the Wolfram Physics Project. In the worst case scenario, countless hours of scientists’ time have been devoted to a wealthy man’s monomaniacal quest to explain the universe in a way that looked good but didn’t work at all. These are resources that could have been divided among countless viable ideas.

In short, the universe is as it is, and we are going to decipher it sooner, later or never. Wolfram has put forward an idea of ​​how it works, but the only basis he has on other proposals is the fact that a and a famous boy came up with it and therefore he has the resources to recruit people to see if it works. But a rigorous review is needed to determine if a proposal is valid and valuable, and if a scientist is promoting a job before it receives any paireview, maybe you should ask yourself if retains water