On Wednesday, February 12, 2003, at 05:04 PM, Andri Esteves wrote:
Everything that could go wrong in academia and science is in Portugal.I sat in a bookstore and read most of his book several weeks ago. A few comments:
That is the background Magueijo comes from...
But, it is not only in Portugal... Everywhere science has declined, as it
becomes part of the political logic of governments, ideologies and power
groups...
First, I kept looking for a clear description of the theory, with convincing details, support, etc. I didn't find it. I instead found a lot of stuff about peeing outside a bar in some tropical place, stories about his girlfriend, insults he delivered to editors at "Nature," and on and on. Sort of a "Fear and Loathing on the Road to Quantum Gravity." (Pun with Smolin's title intended.)
Second, I don't know about Hawking's books, but Lee Smolin is one of the current popularizers who have done excellent jobs. I recommend both of his books. His own "Three Roads to Quantum Gravity" is crystal clear in describing several of the competing theories. Smolin also explains what's really important. (Check the archives for my past comments on Smolin and topos theory, for example, from last summer.)
There is a NEED for destructive purification in today's science.
Popularization of science should not be taken as the stupid adoration of
uncompreensible speeches from the so called "great popularisers of science".
Does the common man read his Hawking's book? Did Hawking even write it?
Hawking writes about fairly established stuff, the usual black hole stuff. This was mostly old hat 30 years ago (which is when I took Jim Hartle's class on general relativity). Hawking doesn't get much into the newer theories, at least not in any of the books of his I've skimmed.
(One of my texts 30 years ago was the Hawking and Ellis book, "The Large Scale Structure of Spacetime." This was heavy going, not the popular fluff he's been turning out lately.)
Third, I have no idea if the VSL theory is "right." Time will tell.
Fourth, but I will say that Magueijo undercuts his arguments with his scatological denunciations of the establishment. I'll be the first to say that I am not always polite, but if I were publishing papers and attempting to get math or crypto results accepted, I doubt this approach would work:
"The crypto community is filled with dumbshit charlatans. I piss on them. I piss on Rivest. I was taking a leak outside a bar in Maracaibo and it hit me: cyphers are just like big turds."
Maybe he doesn't fully understand English and has some idea that interspersing vulgarities with scientific points is the cool thing to do.
However, I'll bet he ends up at a U.S. university, particularly if the VSL theory gains any kind of acceptance. He spoke of one of his colleagues who landed at UC Davis recently.
--Tim May
