Did Garrett Lisi have a wipeout? Maybe not, but what he injected into the GUT & superstring conversation is desperately needed. There *IS* groupthink, and there is confirmation bias, and there is protective affirmation of one’s own hypotheses… I don’t believe Lisi ever claimed it to be an answer, but he did claim it to be more elegant, or at least simpler, than superstring. I found the comments in this article, rather the article itself, quite interesting. At least it sparked discussion…. The update is that he is still developing it and has some issues with fermions – but as “geometrical mysticism” as it might be… fact is it’s simpler than superstring, and that sort of Occam logic is my bag, baby. Also.. one of the comments mentions the “ego trip” of superstring… some physicists seem way too angry about Lisi, who is just trying new stuff. Is it feeling threatened, or is it that they hate their worked perjorativized for the popcorn and bubblegum lay crowd?
Anyhoo… I just like the E8 Petrie Diagram thingy. Â Not to say I understand any of this, but if you check my library records I did take out a GUT book when I was about 10 in 1986. =) Â Just weird…
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