this post was submitted on 14 May 2026
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Science Memes

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[–] hansolo@lemmy.today 6 points 2 months ago (4 children)

You do know that he's heavily published professor of theoretical physics, right?

Or did you not understand the words and throw shade at a physicist simply because you don't know much about theoreticial physics?

[–] kureta@lemmy.ml 13 points 2 months ago (2 children)

He is a really interesting case. He is a real, actual, published theoretical physicist. But his popular science persona made him a bit weird. For example, in this video, alongside Roger Penrose and Sabine Hossenfelder, he looks like a sci-fi hype-man.

[–] girsaysdoom@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Sabine Hossenfelder isn't really a good foil for someone that likes to portray that they are an expert on topics that are actually outside their expertise. Here's a good video on why she is more similar to him than you would think: Youtube.

From my perspective, her takes on anything outside of undergrad physics are pretty shit, so forgive me if I don't see having her involved as a good thing.

[–] kureta@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 months ago

Yeah. I stopped watching her long ago. But I really like Penrose, so I watched that video for him.

[–] hansolo@lemmy.today 5 points 2 months ago

Yeah, I remember him on Art Bell back in the 90s and early 2000s. He's never shied away from trying to inject real science into the pseudoscience crowd. Just because he's willing to be brave enough to keep a discussion grounded in reality doesn't mean other guests invited to some event he didn't organize necessarily color his character. It's the risk of being a science communicator - you want to communicate real science to people that normally don't want to hear about it.

To be fair to a counterpoint, string theory hasn't panned out mathematically as he probably expected, so he has a bit more time to get into all sorts of things these days. I'm more so surprised he hasn't retired yet.

[–] TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world -2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

theoretical physics is is a lot of pseudo science.

most of it is pure mathematics.

it's only science strictly, when it's hypothesis are verified by experimental evidence.

there are still particles in the standard model that are purely theoretical.

[–] hansolo@lemmy.today 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

So.... Math is pseudoscience?

[–] TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

yes. it's not a science anymore than painting is.

you can certainly make mathematical models and paint pictures of theoretical concepts though.

science is the method of empirical verification. math is about as empirical as metaphysics is.

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

mathematician, physicist, and theoretical physicist arguing about what is "real"

fight fight fight

there can only be one!

[–] hansolo@lemmy.today 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Wanna hear my theory about dark matter being ghosts?

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

I hear you should do cocaine about those.

[–] TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

i can do you one better. i was in philosophy.

nothing more fun that the bitterness of various academics getting pissy about whose work is 'most essential' or 'primary' or 'pure' or 'foundational'.

best thing i did in life was leave academia and it's pissing contests of legitimacy. or worse, how much money they could bring it by wooing the donors. funny how a lot of academic pretension just boils down to who can get the most money.