eighth man Posted September 19, 2004 Posted September 19, 2004 Year 2200. The grand unified theory is discovered all constants can be derived, all particles too everything is explained and verified experimentally. Would the scientists still study all the theoretical structures that have been devised anyways as pure math or to see how alternate universes could be devised ? This would have no consequence on physics, but are all those theories /string, symmetry etc) worth studying for themselves anyways (in their own right) ?
RICHARDBATTY Posted September 19, 2004 Posted September 19, 2004 It seems as if their work would be pointless. They will be guted. Narf point.
fuhrerkeebs Posted September 20, 2004 Posted September 20, 2004 Oh no, there work would not be pointless. You would still need people to extract the information from the theory. A TOE (which is what I think you meant by GUT, a GUT is just the unification of the strong interaction and the electroweak interaction), is going to contain alot of stuff. And what about approximations and stuff. I would expect a TOE to be extremely complicated, and we are going to need people to find methods that would give good approximations to the true answer and be equally easy to calculate. And then there's the fact that you can never truly know whether or not you actually a TOE or not...there could always be something hidden beneath the surface.
eighth man Posted September 20, 2004 Author Posted September 20, 2004 OK, interesting replies. What I want to know is if these theories are already today an area of research in pure mathematics and if alternate theories inventing other universes even with no practical use would be interesting to study.
Martin Posted September 20, 2004 Posted September 20, 2004 Would the scientists still study all the theoretical structures that have been devised anyways as pure math or to see how alternate universes could be devised ? This would have no consequence on physics' date=' but are all those theories /string, symmetry etc) worth studying for themselves anyways (in their own right) ? ... ... ... OK, interesting replies. What I want to know is if these theories are already today an area of research in pure mathematics and if alternate theories inventing other universes even with no practical use would be interesting to study.[/quote'] In mathematics one does this all the time. there are always interesting mathematical things to study (but if it does not predict the outcomes of physics experiments then one does not call it physics) perhaps string theory is more a department of mathematics than a testable theory about the real world---but it is called physics by habit or convention. any structure that can be imagined and defined axiomatically can, I suppose, be studied----what is considered interesting is partly a matter of taste and partly governed by time-honored considerations of logical power, generality, elegance. In any case if it is mathematics then it does not have to agree with empirical observation---it must only follow from its own axioms. Humans will always complicate their world, causing the need for new types of analysis----they invent games and this requires mathematical game theory, they invent computers and this requires computer science and the mathematics of computation
Guest ZOG Posted September 24, 2004 Posted September 24, 2004 Scientists don't study the Newton physics, they just use it. If today theories are facts of tomorrow they will be used to discover new theories and get closer to the mind of the creator.
atinymonkey Posted September 24, 2004 Posted September 24, 2004 Zog's mind, the grand creator of mocca latte?
Severian Posted September 24, 2004 Posted September 24, 2004 I would certainly continue to study physics, so the answer to your question is 'yes!'.
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