Money, honors, influence - anything contingent on impressing an audience.
An externally motivated person is capable of doing good science, given the right incentives. However, the way science is funded in most of the world today provides incentives for showmanship, rather than results. This trend has already destroyed physics (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465092756) and computer science (http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com/2007/08/whats-w...) as respectable, intellectually honest fields.
Internally motivated people, driven purely by a love of their field's conceptual beauty, are invulnerable to having their goal system perverted by such systemic rot.
Physics hasn't been destroyed. I love your passion but your claims are sensationalist. I looked at the reviews of the book, and apparently it's about how particle physicists are headed in the wrong direction. Oh no.
> it's about how particle physicists are headed in the wrong direction. Oh no.
"Wrong," as the book's title suggests, is not a strong enough word.
The string theorists have proclaimed that we should no longer require a model of reality to make testable predictions. This should not be confused with an honest mistake, and the fact that a majority of the field's participants are in on the fraud is no excuse (when you lie for money, it is reasonable to call it fraud, whether or not the deed fits the narrow bounds of any legal definitions.) Physics has been Lysenkoized.
Comments
Money, honors, influence - anything contingent on impressing an audience.
An externally motivated person is capable of doing good science, given the right incentives. However, the way science is funded in most of the world today provides incentives for showmanship, rather than results. This trend has already destroyed physics (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465092756) and computer science (http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com/2007/08/whats-w...) as respectable, intellectually honest fields.
Internally motivated people, driven purely by a love of their field's conceptual beauty, are invulnerable to having their goal system perverted by such systemic rot.
Physics hasn't been destroyed. I love your passion but your claims are sensationalist. I looked at the reviews of the book, and apparently it's about how particle physicists are headed in the wrong direction. Oh no.
> it's about how particle physicists are headed in the wrong direction. Oh no.
"Wrong," as the book's title suggests, is not a strong enough word.
The string theorists have proclaimed that we should no longer require a model of reality to make testable predictions. This should not be confused with an honest mistake, and the fact that a majority of the field's participants are in on the fraud is no excuse (when you lie for money, it is reasonable to call it fraud, whether or not the deed fits the narrow bounds of any legal definitions.) Physics has been Lysenkoized.