Lost in Math Audiobook By Sabine Hossenfelder cover art

Lost in Math

How Beauty Leads Physics Astray

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Lost in Math

By: Sabine Hossenfelder
Narrated by: Laura Jennings
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About this listen

A contrarian argues that modern physicists' obsession with beauty has given us wonderful math but bad science

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, these "too good to not be true" theories are actually untestable and they have left the field in a cul-de-sac. To escape, physicists must rethink their methods. Only by embracing reality as it is can science discover the truth.

©2018 Sabine Hossenfelder (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
History & Philosophy Philosophy Physics Science Social Sciences Black Hole String Theory Thought-Provoking
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A timely critique

In the era of the reproducibility crisis, scientists from diverse disciplines often aspire to the standards of physics, where experimental results are orders of magnitude more reliable than elsewhere. Hossenfelder and Jennings point out that there is another problem eating away at many scientific disciplines, and specifically affecting theoretical particle physics: an overweening reliance on aesthetic judgements such as 'naturalness' and elegance. The authors offer a timely critique of this growing problem with detailed examples and compelling interviews -- while remaining circumspect about making philosophical assertions that generalize out of their area of expertise. I recommend this book to any practicing scientist or philosopher of science.

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An Explanation of How the Physics Community Works

If you were curious about how the science of physics progresses - this is a fascinating read. The interconnection of theoretical physics, experimental physics, and mathematics is currently struggling through a period of difficult, high-cost experiments in order to progress to a better understanding of material reality. In the absence of new experiments, theoretical physics is favoring mathematical theories, like Super-Symmetry and String Theory which have "beautiful" ramifications for physics, but a continued lack of empirical support. In this book, Hossenfelder confronts the current state and bias of physics with an aim toward grounding physics in the physical world - a common-held belief that is now wavering in some pockets of the physics world.

Although this book focuses primarily on the system of people involved in advancing physics in the world today, it does address concerns of modernity: the busy, multi-tasked roles of physicists today is not improving the quality or advancement of the discipline. Where cutting edge physics experiments are expensive, putting a few string theorists on staff to draw attention to your department is cheap. Hossenfelder also provides a strong critique of economics... something like "economists are not advancing mathematics - even though string theory hasn't yet proved itself as a physical theory, at least it advances mathematics."

What a great listen - if you're at all interested in physics!

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A message from the trenches

At first I thought the book was too long for the simple thesis it’s presenting, namely that physicists have become obsessed with beauty as a criterion for truth. However, as the author developed and reiterated her point, the book never became boring. As a scientist at that precarious interface between dependence and independence, I appreciate her voice critical of the establishment but also constructive. Appendix C is worthy of becoming a manifesto. There are eloquent gems scattered throughout, for example, “it smelled of science - coffee”.

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Problems in fundamental physics research today

Great book on the problems facing fundamental physics research today. The author does a great job of talking about the past successes of theoretical physics and how those approaches aren't working leading to questionable practices within the community. The book is written for audiences, both with or without a scientific background. I would strongly recommend it for anyone that is interested.

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Excellent

Hossenfelder is a theoretical physicist. This is her first book written for the lay audience. The author is a research fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies in Germany. The book is about the abuse of mathematics while pretending to do science. The book is a series of interviews with well-known physicists. She builds a case of how science fails to self-correct itself and set about proving a theory. Hossenfelder does some critical thinking that she outlines in the book. I understand the politics of science and Hossenfelder put her career on the line by writing this book. If you are interested in science/physics, this is a worthwhile book to read.

The book is eight hours and forty minutes. Laura Jennings does a good job narrating the book. Jennings is a voice actor and full-time audiobook narrator.

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Lost in Humanity - A Story of Greed and Power

As a listener of many physics books, and in particular books related to general relativity and quantum mechanics, my opinion is that this is the best physics books I have listened to in over a year.

Sabine Hossenfelder has done an outstanding and courageous job of speaking truth-to-power in the high dollar game of physics research. Instead of taking the easy "me too" and "beauty and social acceptance" route, Sabine Hossenfelder simply tells us the truth.

This proves that, in every generation, society is dominated by trendy concepts of beauty, aesthetics, and herd mentality. The rise and dominance of social media has only made things worse.

I agree completely with Sabine Hossenfelder that there are serious problems is society and in physics research. I have had the same experience in cyber security.

When I wrote my paper where I coined the phrase "cyberspace situational awareness", at the time, the dominance of the herd mentality rejected my work. Then, decades later after the masses accepted my notion of CSA, then the herd mentality spins off into another "wrong direction".

Dominated by corporate greed, the funding game, clubbiness in the review of research papers, a culture of celebrity worship and ego; physics research has spun off into the land of beauty and herd mentality far from reality.

Sabine Hossenfelder had done an outstanding job as a truth-teller in a world where truth is not really appreciated as much as beauty and group think.

Highly Recommended.

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Important Course-Correction for Physics

Dr. Hossenfelder, a theoretical physicist, builds a compelling case against science done for the sake of beauty, naturalness, or occupational survival/justification/acceptance and how the popularity of some theories drives more science effort than results (or lack thereof). She argues convincingly that progress is inhibited by the sociology and psychology of physicists, limiting the questions they ask, the assumptions they make, and results they accept.
Physics, and all of the branches stemming therefrom, is in a crisis. This is not simply the fault of the scientists, but an inevitable result of the systems of science that are internationally used today. Skepticism is often replaced by the need to get the next grant, publish the next paper, or even just validating one's position in academia. Social bias (within the scientific community) and intuitive conceptions of beauty and naturalness conspire to suppress scientific skepticism.
Hossenfelder makes a case for recruiting philosophy to guide physics through the maze of questions that can be well served by scientific method and those that cannot. More than that, she decries invisible assumptions of elegance, symmetry, beauty, or naturalness that skew investments in experiments and investigations.
This book is an important call for changing the status quo and should be read by scientists across all fields and the nonscientists who fund their research.

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Like reading Crichton for the first time, but true

A very even-handed and careful review of the philosophical problems corrupting modern physics, and science in general, and academia, and society.

Told as a review of conversations this physicist has had over the years, and published arguments and historical narratives, the author lasts out the thinking-problems that threaten to undermine the ivory tower.

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The state of the union of physics

I enjoyed the interviews with prominent scientist, and Sabine's views on scientist inability to let go theory's that have failed predictions. Or theory's that can't be tested. The narrator was good. I sped it up a little bit.

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Great Insight Into the World of Theoretical Math

The author shows us what is going on in theoretical math and how at that level it’s just a bunch of people guessing about the makeup of nature. Few to which are willing to accept the obvious answer to the origin of everything. God

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