Peter Woit: Unification, Spinors, Twistors, String Theory

Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal

English - November 22, 2023 15:13 - 3 hours
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Previous Episode: David Chalmers: Are Large Language Models Conscious?

Next Episode: Peter Woit: Unification, Twistors, and the Death of String Theory

YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z3JYb_g2Qs
Prof. Peter Woit discusses string theory, its decline, and introduces his graviweak unification theory using Euclidean twistor in Euclidean spacetime.

TIMESTAMPS:
- 00:00:00 Introduction
- 00:00:00 String theory's fundamental issues | Mathematicians' challenges
- 00:02:20 Spacetime and twistor theory insights
- 00:20:00 Bundles & diffeomorphism groups
- 00:38:34 Spinors as a spacetime point
- 00:46:57 Dominance of string theory & Ed Witten's influence
- 00:54:17 Quest for quantum gravity
- 01:03:22 String theory's lack of predictive power
- 01:09:33 Machine learning meets theoretical physics
- 01:18:56 Personal attacks vs. intellectual debate
- 01:24:49 Mathematicians vs. Physicists | Academic silos
- 01:37:15 Developing a contrarian view & the origin of 'Not Even Wrong'
- 01:40:54 Langlands & representation theory
- 01:48:51 Spacetime is NOT doomed
- 01:58:47 Sean Carroll's crisis in physics (odd responses to criticism)
- 02:13:21 Differentiable structures by dimension
- 02:26:10 Gravi-weak unification & chirality
- 02:32:57 Chern-Simons theory
- 02:42:20 Gravity as torsion or curvature
- 02:50:07 Category theory in physics
- 02:56:43 Defining a fulfilling life

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LINKS MENTIONED:
- Not Even Wrong (Peter Woit's Blog): https://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/w...
- Not Even Wrong (Peter Woit's Book): https://amzn.to/40NFeaK
- Spacetime is Right-Handed (Peter Woit's Article): https://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/r...
- Podcast w/ Edward Frankel: https://youtu.be/n_oPMcvHbAc
- The Elegant Universe (Brian Greene): https://amzn.to/3sNmk7x
- The Trouble With Physics (Lee Smolin): https://amzn.to/47lCCUj
- Podcast w/ Sabina Hossenfelder on TOE: https://youtu.be/walaNM7KiYA
- Podcast w/ Stephon Alexander Part 1: https://youtu.be/VETxb96a3qk
- Podcast w/ Stephon Alexander Λ Sal Pais: https://youtu.be/PE4C7OI7Frg
- Podcast w/ Eric Weinstein: https://youtu.be/KElq_MLO1kw
- Podcast w/ Stephen Wolfram Part 1: https://youtu.be/1sXrRc3Bhrs
- Podcast w/ Stephen Wolfram Part 2: https://youtu.be/xHPQ_oSsJgg
- Podcast w/ Jonathan Oppenheim: https://youtu.be/NKOd8imBa2s

YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z3JYb_g2Qs

Prof. Peter Woit discusses string theory, its decline, and introduces his graviweak unification theory using Euclidean twistor in Euclidean spacetime.

TIMESTAMPS:

- 00:00:00 Introduction

- 00:00:00 String theory's fundamental issues | Mathematicians' challenges

- 00:02:20 Spacetime and twistor theory insights

- 00:20:00 Bundles & diffeomorphism groups

- 00:38:34 Spinors as a spacetime point

- 00:46:57 Dominance of string theory & Ed Witten's influence

- 00:54:17 Quest for quantum gravity

- 01:03:22 String theory's lack of predictive power

- 01:09:33 Machine learning meets theoretical physics

- 01:18:56 Personal attacks vs. intellectual debate

- 01:24:49 Mathematicians vs. Physicists | Academic silos