String theory
In a conversation with one of the students that took the survey, she explains her decision to spend the billion-dollar budget on research on alternative energy sources:
I think the best way to spend the money is to find more cost-effective and cleaner ways to generate electricity. I have heard of string theory before, and I think along with dark holes and dark energy, these are interesting areas that are worthy of further exploration. However, these fields are mostly theoretical and hard to prove experimentally; and even if one day we can definitively prove these theories, they possess no real practical applications. And yet there are third world countries here on Earth that are struggling to generate electricity for their populations. T hat is why the scientific community’s main priority should be developing other energy sources, so the general public can directly benefit from these breakthroughs.
This quote represents the opinion of the majority of the future generation; it does not matter how elegant or beautiful the mathematics behind a theory is. In a society that is increasingly demanding empirical evidence to support a theory, the purely theoretical approach towards researching string theory is causing up-and-coming physicists to opt for fields that aremore grounded. I remain optimistic that a theory of everything will be developed and gain universal recognition in the scientific community one day, but I am not confident that string theory can be proven within my lifetime (even if it is the heralded theory of everything). In the face of seemingly undeniable evidence and after reading papers written by some of the most active members within the community, I have to agree that time and money is better spent on other fields of physics where theories can already be confirmed experimentally and the potential applications can significantly improve the quality of life of the public.
Bibliography
Conlon, J., 2016. Why String Theory? Boca Raton Davies, P. and Brown, J., 1988. Superstrings: A Theory Of Everything? Cambridge Dawid, R., 2009. On the Conflicting Assessments of the Current Status of String Theory. Philosophy of Science , 76(5), pp.984-996 Dawid, R., 2015. String Theory And The Scientific Method . Cambridge Hedrich, R., 2007. The Internal and External Problems of String Theory: A Philosophical View. Journal for General Philosophy of Science , 38(2), pp.261-278. Knapp, A., 2012. How Much Does It Cost To Find A Higgs Boson? . [online] Forbes. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2012/07/05/how-much-does-it-cost-to-find-a- higgs- boson/#203efaaa3948 [Accessed 17 July 2020]. Mukhi, S., 1999. The theory of strings: An introduction. Current Science , 77(12), pp.1624-1634. Woit, P., 2002. Is String Theory Even Wrong?. American Scientist , 90(2), p.110.
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