#246 – Peter Woit: Theories of Everything and Why String Theory is Not Even Wrong

Peter Woit is a theoretical physicist, mathematician, critic of string theory, and author of the popular science blog Not Even Wrong. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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EPISODE LINKS:
Peter’s website: http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/
Peter’s blog: https://bit.ly/3xCwm9F
Not Even Wrong (book): https://amzn.to/3peDzZs
Quantum Theory, Groups, and Representations (book): https://amzn.to/316iAjf
Love and Math (book): https://amzn.to/3If7B8m
The Second Creation (book): https://amzn.to/3rlWzIu

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OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(07:22) – Physics vs mathematics
(21:51) – Beauty of mathematics
(43:42) – String theory
(1:12:15) – Theory of everything
(1:32:23) – Twistor theory and spinors
(1:48:50) – Nobel Prize likelihood for theory of everything
(1:52:36) – Simulating physics
(1:56:07) – Sci-Fi, aliens and space
(2:05:19) – Responsibility of scientists