Modern Wisdom #028 - Sabine Hossenfelder - How Politics And Beauty Leads Physics Astray
Sep 3, 2018
Sabine Hossenfelder, a theoretical physicist and author of Lost in Math, explores why modern physics may be stuck. She digs into beautiful theories, supersymmetry’s endless revisions, and decades of null results. The conversation also gets into funding politics, groupthink, dark matter, and whether the hunt for a theory of everything is sending science in the wrong direction.
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Physics Rewards Popular And Beautiful Ideas
- Physics is shaped heavily by politics and psychology because researchers must sell ideas, gain allies, and work on topics others already value.
- Hossenfelder says supersymmetry attracts followers partly because physicists see it as mathematically pretty and aesthetically satisfying.
Naturalness May Be A Mistaken Rule
- Hossenfelder thinks naturalness became a hidden dogma by treating order-one numbers as a sign that a theory must reflect reality.
- Supersymmetry looked compelling because it made the Standard Model seem natural, but she sees no scientific reason nature must obey that rule.
Beauty In Physics Is A Moving Target
- Hossenfelder says physicists usually mean beauty as simplicity, naturalness, and elegance, not ordinary visual beauty.
- She argues these tastes change across history; circular planetary orbits once looked beautiful too, yet proved wrong.
