Lost in math
by Sabine Hossenfelder · first published 2018
45% recommend53% neutral3% critical
Why HN recommends it
Critique of physics' pursuit of beauty and naturalness, mixing science critique with an insider's look at funding, publish-or-perish and fashion. Accessible and funny for outsiders without a physics background.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"Whether pondering black holes or predicting discoveries at CERN, physicists believe the best theories are beautiful, natural, and elegant, and this standard separates popular theories from disposable ones. This is why, Sabine Hossenfelder argues, we have not seen a major breakthrough in the foundations of physics for more than four decades. The belief in beauty has become so dogmatic that it now conflicts with scientific objectivity: observation has been unable to confirm mindboggling theories, like supersymmetry or grand unification, invented by physicists based on aesthetic criteria. Worse,
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The author managed to write an article on the problems of scientific method without even mentioning Paul Feyerabend's "anything goes". He didn't mention either the fantastic "Lost in Math" by Sabine Hossenfelder, in which this precise problem is fully addressed in a manner that uninformed people can grasp. No mention of Karl Popper and the philosophy behind why on Earth do we use data…
on “Keep Science Irrational” ↗As I read that paragraph, I thought to myself that the author should read Sabine Hossenfelder's recent book Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray. In that book, Sabine argues quite convincingly that our aesthetic judgements of new theories can mislead us. She says of simplicity, > This dream still drives research…
on “No, negative masses have not revolutionized cosmology” ↗…https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturalness_(physics) Hossenfelder wrote a book crtizising current mainstream thinking on the importance and role of naturalness: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36341728-lost-in-math Here is an excellent review that also links to an article by Wilczek defending the orthodoxy. https://aapt.scitation.org/doi/10.1119/1.5086393?fbclid=IwAR...
on “Just because it’s falsifiable doesn’t mean it’s good science” ↗Hossenfelder is a polarizing figure. “Lost In Math” was a thought-provoking book in the tradition of the other string iconoclasts (Smolin, Woit, Rovelli, roughly “the Perimeter crowd”). “Three Roads to Quantum Gravity” was the last general audience book…
on “We don't know how the universe began, and we will never know” ↗FWIW, Hossenfelder sounds a bit like a crackpot contrarian in this article, but her book "Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray" is incredibly nuanced and well-argued.
on “I've said it all before but here we go again” ↗Two weeks ago I heard a very interesting EconTalk podcast[1] by Sabine Hossenfelder on Physics, Reality, and Lost in Math. Hossenfelder herself is a theoretical physicist, and researches quantum gravity. And a Research Fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies. She has a refreshing tone and frankness, and…
on “String Theory Does Not Win a Nobel, and I Win a Long Bet” ↗…lot of words, and I plan to write a blog post on it at some point. But briefly, it comes down to it getting me excited about math again. And as something of a counter-point to that book, I also read Lost in Math by Sabine Hossenfelder, which was also very good. Others that were definitely worth reading: Analogy Making As Perception by Melanie Mitchell Society of Mind by Marvin Minsky (re-read) Engineering…
on “Ask HN: What book changed your life in 2020?” ↗Incidentally I've just read the book "Lost in Math" by Sabine Hossenfelder, and it really goes down into the problems of modern science, its funding, its "publish or perish", its fashions... A really excellent (and quite funny, too) book.
on “20 Years Later” ↗Something Deeply Hidden - Sean Carroll[1] Lost in Math - Sabine Hossenfelder[2] The First Three Minutes - Steven Weinberg[3] Hyperspace - Michio Kaku[4] Not Even Wrong - Peter Woit[5] The Trouble With Physics - Lee Smolin[6] About Time - Paul Davies[7]…
on “Ask HN: Recommended Books on Physics?” ↗Would also recommend Sabine Hossenfelder for some similar views on the path physics is taking / dangers of popsci https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36341728-lost-in-math I've also enjoyed her YouTube videos that have knocked down a lot of my popsci derived thoughts.
on “Speculation that wormholes and entanglement are two aspects of the same thing” ↗…interesting to me. Reading this book definitely helped motivate me to get serious about committing more time / focus to studying mathematics. I also enjoyed the "counterpoint" book by Sabine Hosenfelder, Lost in Math[2]. I think these two books complement each other nicely. Then the handful of additional (no pun intended) books that jump to mind would be: - How Mathematicians Think by William Byers[3] - How to…
on “Ask HN: Math books that made you significantly better at math?” ↗…blocking other potentially groundbreaking ideas (including, but not limited to, his own). Think of it as a mix of a science critique and an insider's look at the politics and sociology of physics. - "Lost in Math" by Sabine Hossenfelder, which asks if physicists' quest for beauty in equations and theories is leading them astray. This one's the most accessible, mixing in history, interviews, personal stories, and…
on “20 Years of "Not Even Wrong"” ↗…in existing theory using bogus arguments, which ends up funding poorly motivated experiments that then find nothing. I think Sabine Hossenfelder elaborated the problems here in excellent detail (see "Lost in Math").
on “Physics is unreasonably good at creating new math” ↗> If a podcaster (e.g. Sabine Hossenfelder) has a book, read the book (Lost in Math is pretty good) rather than watching the podcasts. That's a good general takeaway, not just for physics drama. I can think of several people whose books are great or at least pretty good, but their social…
on “Epistemic Collapse at the WSJ” ↗…Graham Farmelo The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdos and the Search for Mathematical Truth - Paul Hoffman The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan - Robert Kanigel Lost in Math - Sabine Hossenfelder The First Three Minutes - Steven Weinberg Hyperspace - Michio Kaku Not Even Wrong - Peter Woit The Trouble With Physics - Lee Smolin About Time - Paul Davies Time Reborn -…
on “Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?” ↗