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SELECTED READINGS FOR ESSAY 4 (IV)
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*******You can read this blog for free! Please, do not copy its content.*******
*******You can read this blog for free! Please, do not copy its content.*******
String theory as visual linkage: Einstein – String theory – Hawking
*******You can read this blog for free! Please, do not copy its content.*******
There is no visual vs/as relationship between Einstein and Hawking without a common non-visual background. In fact, the main reason why Hawking is usually associated with Einstein is because he continues Eintein’s quest for a final theory of physics. Both of them devoted their lives to discovering that single theory which could describe all phenomena taking place in the universe. Today, this theory has a name: string theory. Thus, string theory, popularly known as “the final theory” or “the theory of everything,” is the cornerstone that unites united the two parts of this visual edifice. (If I use the present tense instead of the past, it is because many of the things I have been saying are still valid.) Let us then see how Einstein is usually connected to string theory and how string theory relates to Hawking.
A couple of years ago a science journalist published an article in The Guardian, a prestigious British newspaper, explaining what string theory was about and what string theorists were looking for (articles such as this are rife).[source] The subheading — written by the editorial board, I suppose — manifests right from the start the point of the article: “100 years after Einstein changed physics forever, Alok Jha [the article’s author] visits a leafy corner of Princeton to meet his intellectual heirs — still hunting for a theory of everything.” After two lines, in which he praises Edward Witten as “undoubtedly the heir to Albert Einstein’s title of greatest living physicist,” Jha affirms: “If Einstein were alive today, he would probably be a string theorist, engaged in a remarkable, but still controversial, theory that claims to explain absolutely everything around us.” This is a very strong claim that the journalist tries to support in the rest of his account – notice that he is reporting from Princeton, “probably most famous for being the place where Einstein spent his final years.” After talking about Edward Witten, Nathan Seiberg, M-Theory, 10 and 11 dimensions, and so forth, in the middle of the article he returns to Einstein: “Einstein died in 1955 without fulfilling his dream, but the question he was asking was the inspiration for what has now become string theory.” And then he quotes Seiberg saying: “Being in the place where Einstein was is clearly an inspiring idea.” A few lines before the end, and as a concluding remark, Alok Jha from The Guardian writes: “Not without some controversy, string theory, is the lead contender to fulfill Einstein’s dream.”
Two more examples: “By unifying all the forces, string theory had the potential of achieving the goal that Einstein sought without success for half his life and that has embodied the dreams of every physicist since then”[source]; “Proponents say it [string theory] is the only hope we have of producing a unified theory of everything, the holy grail that eluded Einstein.”[source] These are only some examples from influential newspapers in English, but the same can be seen in materials published in other languages. You do not need to speak Spanish to understand what the following quotation is about (from the back cover of Brian Greene’s book):
But do materials about Einstein in turn refer to string theory? Yes, this practice is well established too. This is the case when conference organizers or book editors invite string theorists to talk or write about Einstein and his contribution to modern physics. Nobel laureate David Gross and best-selling author Lisa Randall, both well-known string theorists, were the only physicists invited to write about Einstein’s contribution to modern physics in a recent survey of “Einstein’s cultural impact.”[source] Only two string theorists to talk about the whole contribution of Einstein’s ideas to contemporary physics is something surprising. Another example, that is even more astonishing, appeared in the aforementioned issue of Time magazine on 3 January 2003. There, there is an article by Madeleine Nash entitled “Einstein’s Unfinished Symphony.” (I have already discussed this article in essay 2.) The article’s suheading declares straight away: “Strings may do what Einstein finally failed to do: tie together the two great irreconcilable ideas of 20th century physics.” This issue was sold to millions of people around the world and was translated into several languages. Therefore, even if you have never heard about string theory and you are not interested in contemporary high energy physics, in many cases reading about Einstein will force you to be acquainted with it!
Let us now examine the connection linking string theory and Hawking. I will not deal with his association with a final theory since this is well known, instead, I will mention some cases where his relation to string theory is explicit.
Even though he has never been a string theorist, Hawking has devoted a lot of time to its popularization. References to the theory can be found in his popular books and articles, conferences, and media appearances in general. A key example: the last chapter of A Brief History of Time is about string theory. It is important to remember that Hawking’s book was been one of the best sold books in history and millions of copies are distributed worldwide. This contribution would be enough to show that Hawing’s book cannot be neglected when talking about the popularity of string theory and his association with it. However, no all the connections between Hawking and string theory have been made by Hawking himself. The web of connections is also woven by other people, and many institutions. On Discovery Channel I once heard that Hawking had discovered string theory after a dream (see essay 4 for more details on string theory and creativity). Often an association is made between Hawking, string theory and Einstein all at the same time. The German translation of Hawking’s book Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays, already cited, is presented as follows: “Einsteins Traum von einer vollständigen einheitlichen Theorie, die alle Phänomene und Ereignisse im Universum in eine umfassende Ordnung stellt, ist nicht in Erfüllung gegangen” (Einstein’s dream of a complete unified theory, which brings all phenomena and events of the universe in a comprehensive order, did not come true). (Boldface in the original.) On the BBC News website there is an article entitled “Hawking Search for Everything.”[source] Beside a photograph of him (Figure 16), where the facial features we described in the previous section are very visible, it is said:
16. Detail from an article on the BBC News website.
For someone who does not know what Hawking has done in theoretical physics, this article (as many, many others) is completely deceiving.
That string theorists refer to Hawking is understandable: solutions to string theory include black hole type solutions; the AdS/CFT correspondence being an example of the importance of these mathematical objects (see essay 1). But they also do it in order to gain popularity and then support for the theory (in-out-in process).
I hope that I have persuasively shown that and explained how string theory has provided a strong linkage uniting Einstein and Hawking. A linkage that is much more than the vague idea of a “theory of everything” shared by both. However, it should always be borne in mind that each of the three elements have benefited from the popular success of the others by mutual referentiality. They form a sort of trinity. Einstein would not be the same without Hawking and the theory of superstrings. At the same time, Hawking would not be the same without string theory and Einstein. Finally, string theory would not have achieved anywhere near the amount of success it has done had it not found support from Einstein’s and Hawking’s discourses and portraits.
*******You can read this blog for free! Please, do not copy its content.*******
String theory as visual linkage: Einstein – String theory – Hawking
*******You can read this blog for free! Please, do not copy its content.*******
There is no visual vs/as relationship between Einstein and Hawking without a common non-visual background. In fact, the main reason why Hawking is usually associated with Einstein is because he continues Eintein’s quest for a final theory of physics. Both of them devoted their lives to discovering that single theory which could describe all phenomena taking place in the universe. Today, this theory has a name: string theory. Thus, string theory, popularly known as “the final theory” or “the theory of everything,” is the cornerstone that unites united the two parts of this visual edifice. (If I use the present tense instead of the past, it is because many of the things I have been saying are still valid.) Let us then see how Einstein is usually connected to string theory and how string theory relates to Hawking.
A couple of years ago a science journalist published an article in The Guardian, a prestigious British newspaper, explaining what string theory was about and what string theorists were looking for (articles such as this are rife).[source] The subheading — written by the editorial board, I suppose — manifests right from the start the point of the article: “100 years after Einstein changed physics forever, Alok Jha [the article’s author] visits a leafy corner of Princeton to meet his intellectual heirs — still hunting for a theory of everything.” After two lines, in which he praises Edward Witten as “undoubtedly the heir to Albert Einstein’s title of greatest living physicist,” Jha affirms: “If Einstein were alive today, he would probably be a string theorist, engaged in a remarkable, but still controversial, theory that claims to explain absolutely everything around us.” This is a very strong claim that the journalist tries to support in the rest of his account – notice that he is reporting from Princeton, “probably most famous for being the place where Einstein spent his final years.” After talking about Edward Witten, Nathan Seiberg, M-Theory, 10 and 11 dimensions, and so forth, in the middle of the article he returns to Einstein: “Einstein died in 1955 without fulfilling his dream, but the question he was asking was the inspiration for what has now become string theory.” And then he quotes Seiberg saying: “Being in the place where Einstein was is clearly an inspiring idea.” A few lines before the end, and as a concluding remark, Alok Jha from The Guardian writes: “Not without some controversy, string theory, is the lead contender to fulfill Einstein’s dream.”
Two more examples: “By unifying all the forces, string theory had the potential of achieving the goal that Einstein sought without success for half his life and that has embodied the dreams of every physicist since then”[source]; “Proponents say it [string theory] is the only hope we have of producing a unified theory of everything, the holy grail that eluded Einstein.”[source] These are only some examples from influential newspapers in English, but the same can be seen in materials published in other languages. You do not need to speak Spanish to understand what the following quotation is about (from the back cover of Brian Greene’s book):
Brian Greene explica en este libro cómo las grandes teorías de la relatividad y de la mecánica cuántica, que transformaron nuestra interpretación de la naturaleza durante el siglo XX, nos han conducido al mayor problema de la física de hoy en día: la búsqueda de una ley que unifique a todas las demás, una ley que Einstein persiguió en vano durante treinta años y a la que se denomina “teoría de supercuerdas”.[source] (Italics added.)
But do materials about Einstein in turn refer to string theory? Yes, this practice is well established too. This is the case when conference organizers or book editors invite string theorists to talk or write about Einstein and his contribution to modern physics. Nobel laureate David Gross and best-selling author Lisa Randall, both well-known string theorists, were the only physicists invited to write about Einstein’s contribution to modern physics in a recent survey of “Einstein’s cultural impact.”[source] Only two string theorists to talk about the whole contribution of Einstein’s ideas to contemporary physics is something surprising. Another example, that is even more astonishing, appeared in the aforementioned issue of Time magazine on 3 January 2003. There, there is an article by Madeleine Nash entitled “Einstein’s Unfinished Symphony.” (I have already discussed this article in essay 2.) The article’s suheading declares straight away: “Strings may do what Einstein finally failed to do: tie together the two great irreconcilable ideas of 20th century physics.” This issue was sold to millions of people around the world and was translated into several languages. Therefore, even if you have never heard about string theory and you are not interested in contemporary high energy physics, in many cases reading about Einstein will force you to be acquainted with it!
Let us now examine the connection linking string theory and Hawking. I will not deal with his association with a final theory since this is well known, instead, I will mention some cases where his relation to string theory is explicit.
Even though he has never been a string theorist, Hawking has devoted a lot of time to its popularization. References to the theory can be found in his popular books and articles, conferences, and media appearances in general. A key example: the last chapter of A Brief History of Time is about string theory. It is important to remember that Hawking’s book was been one of the best sold books in history and millions of copies are distributed worldwide. This contribution would be enough to show that Hawing’s book cannot be neglected when talking about the popularity of string theory and his association with it. However, no all the connections between Hawking and string theory have been made by Hawking himself. The web of connections is also woven by other people, and many institutions. On Discovery Channel I once heard that Hawking had discovered string theory after a dream (see essay 4 for more details on string theory and creativity). Often an association is made between Hawking, string theory and Einstein all at the same time. The German translation of Hawking’s book Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays, already cited, is presented as follows: “Einsteins Traum von einer vollständigen einheitlichen Theorie, die alle Phänomene und Ereignisse im Universum in eine umfassende Ordnung stellt, ist nicht in Erfüllung gegangen” (Einstein’s dream of a complete unified theory, which brings all phenomena and events of the universe in a comprehensive order, did not come true). (Boldface in the original.) On the BBC News website there is an article entitled “Hawking Search for Everything.”[source] Beside a photograph of him (Figure 16), where the facial features we described in the previous section are very visible, it is said:
16. Detail from an article on the BBC News website.For someone who does not know what Hawking has done in theoretical physics, this article (as many, many others) is completely deceiving.
That string theorists refer to Hawking is understandable: solutions to string theory include black hole type solutions; the AdS/CFT correspondence being an example of the importance of these mathematical objects (see essay 1). But they also do it in order to gain popularity and then support for the theory (in-out-in process).
I hope that I have persuasively shown that and explained how string theory has provided a strong linkage uniting Einstein and Hawking. A linkage that is much more than the vague idea of a “theory of everything” shared by both. However, it should always be borne in mind that each of the three elements have benefited from the popular success of the others by mutual referentiality. They form a sort of trinity. Einstein would not be the same without Hawking and the theory of superstrings. At the same time, Hawking would not be the same without string theory and Einstein. Finally, string theory would not have achieved anywhere near the amount of success it has done had it not found support from Einstein’s and Hawking’s discourses and portraits.
________________________________________________________________________
SELECTED READINGS FOR ESSAY 4 (IV)
SELECTED READINGS FOR ESSAY 4 (IV)
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