- cross-posted to:
- science@lemmygrad.ml
- cross-posted to:
- science@lemmygrad.ml
Recently I saw a post about an article by Sabine Hossenfelder and I wanted to share the video that introduced me to Sabine Hossenfelder. Do you think her claims are credible? Sometimes I feel I'm just too anti-intellectual.
If you want to watch a longer version (in German with English subtitles): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99hVAu1k6G8.
I can't speak to the 70s but more recently there is definitely a crisis of philosophy. Students are rarely exposed to the philosophical underpinning of science, and the world of philosophy outside of science. In pop culture philosophy and science are at odds.
I also can't help but notice the problems seem to start around 1900. The US is experiencing rapid industrialization. Europe is about to go to war. Colonialism is all over the place. Science in the US gets aimed at the military and consumer technologies in middle/second half of the 20th century. Computers become widespread and everyone starts to focus on computer modeling and simulation. Most physics in the US is private and aimed at industrial R&D. Theoretical physics is such a small part of it. So yeah we have more physicists but they're not working on the problems of dark matter. They're designing medical technology or mining technology.
I'd be curious to see the amount of purely theoretical physicists active in research. Capitalism isn't likely to dump significant funding or labor into something that's not monetized. Which is probably why a lot of that is only popularized through media and personalities. Because the only way to monetize it is to make a TV show or sell a book. That doesn't really require active research.
Additionally, I think this same problem has been resonating throughout academia. The growing amount of students that cannot break down and understand problems with critical thinking skills in stem classes is becoming rediculous. Interestingly, the trend I mentioned and the trend of theoretical physics are rather correlated. Additionally, it seems like the sane problem is happening in all of the other physical sciences. Anything fundamental tends to be avoided in favored of more applications focused research. I'll even go out on a branch and say some of the same problems are manifesting in the humanities and "soft" (as bs as that idea is) sciences.
As a chemist who likes doing theoretical/core understanding type stuff, you basically can't get funding unless you somehow tie it to medical or materials. Even if your research really doesn't have that much to do with those things.