Garrett Lisi

Garrett Lisi wrote an online scientific paper entitled "An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything" that has the physics community talking. It is an attempt at the universal theory of everything, to replace the Standard Model.

Lisi's theory is considerably more simple than the rival model of string theory.

His theory is based on the mathematical shape, known as E8.

Being poor sucks," Garrett Lisi says. "It's hard to figure out the secrets of the universe when you're trying to figure out where you and your girlfriend are going to sleep next month."

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Can the e8 shape help us find the "theory of everything"? Garrett Lisi thinks so.

Written by The_Zimbio_Team on

Garrett Lisi has a PhD, but he isn't a master scientist living a life in academia. Instead, he's a surfer who works on physics problems on the side. But his latest theory is causing a stir in the physics community. He used the geometric shape known as E8 to tie together various physical theories and laws into one master theory.

"The theory is very young, and still in development," he told the press. "Right now, I'd assign a low (but not tiny) likelyhood to this..."

"For comparison, I think the chances are higher that LHC will see some of these particles than it is that the LHC will see superparticles, extra dimensions, or micro black holes as predicted by string theory. I hope to get more (and different) predictions, with more confidence, out of this E8 Theory over the next year, before the LHC comes online."

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Comments

tsmid said...

I think the introduction to the paper gives it away already:

"We exist in a universe described by mathematics" ....... "The mathematics of the universe should be beautiful".

This seems to be just another case of mathematical mysticism and should not qualify as rational science (even it appears to reproduce certain aspects of reality). The scheme suggested reminds me vaguely of astrological models and Kepler's attempt to explain the solar system in terms of regular polyhedra (see http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/starry/keplerastrol.html , http://hyperion.cc.uregina.ca/~astro/Kepler_poly.html ) and we all know what the scientific status of this is nowadays.

Mathematics should be a tool, not an end in itself.

Thomas
http://www.physicsmyths.org.uk

kayakgeoff said...

"Mathematics should be a tool, not an end in itself."

Geometry is the purest form of design. If I was going to to design a universe, I'd start with with geometry.

Iinky said...

Thomas keeps posting that drivel everywhere. Is he systematically trying to take Lisi out with a silly idea and yet no proof that he even understands the math in the paper?

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