I am fascinated by "The String Theory" and "Quantum Mechanics" What are your thoughts on the matter?

Question

I watched a show over the holidays about parallel universes. Anyone educated in this field care to share your thoughts?

Answer 1

Sure, I'd be happy to.

Physics for the last fifty years has been grappling with a single goal -- a single model that will reconcile the very large-scale behavior of the universe (as explained by gravity, Einstein's general relativity, and cosmology) with the very small-scale behavior (quantum mechanical theory from the 1930s). We have separate, very good explanations for how each of these work, by themselves, but the two theories haven't been reconciled with one another.

One suggested model is "String Theory", which has been in vogue for the last ten years or so. Unfortunately, many physicists aren't fans of string theory for the simple reason that its adherents have yet to discover a single prediction that is testable in the physical world. Since this is the gold standard of science, any model or theory that seeks acceptance needs to come up with a predictable observation that can be used to verify or discredit the theory -- even QM and general relativity (and scientific elements like evolutionary theory) have made such predictions.

It doesn't mean we won't come up with one for string theory yet, we just haven't so far.

One of the problems humans have with quantum mechanics is that, unlike everything else we've found in the universe, quantum mechanics suggests that the behavior of subatomic particles is inherently random. Some people don't like this idea of randomness in physical systems, and there's a (small) school of thought in physics that suggests that it's reasonable to believe that universes are forking each time a quantum 'random' action happens. into two universes where each action happens a different way. These universes are then considered "parallel" universes -- but if this is true, there must be a whole lot of parallel universes! There's another kind of universe I personally think is more likely.

In the "Introduction to Astronomy" class we teach at Berkeley, our official line is that there are logical reasons to think that other universes exist, but nothing in the way of physically testable or observable evidence. One such reason might be as a way to explain the acceleration of our universe -- other universes could be "pulling" on our own. Another is the finely tuned nature of the physical constants of our Universe and its ability to support life -- perhaps there are others where life cannot exist (the "anthropic principle"). Of course, this is still speculative and based on logic rather than observations -- until we come up with a concrete way to test this idea through physical observations, it's simply a fascinating concept.

Answer 2

You know i am also fascinated by the sting theory. But Quantum mechanics is a bit hard for me to understand. But the day i came to know about this theory, i read every story about it and i have read many books on it too. As one answerer wrote, the book "The Elegant Universe" is just great. It can be said that it is completely on string theory. I am waiting for the day when we will discover string theory or Grand Unified Theory of the Theory of Everything. The will be the greatest day ever for physics. I hope it is discovered in our lifetimes. The concept of unifying all the theories of physics into one framework is tremendous. Its amazing. I wish Einstein had lived a few more years so that he could finish his last work which was on the string theory. He was on the verge of discovering the theory of everything, The String theory. Basically the string theory combines the relativity with quantum mechanics. A theory which explains the behavior of giant things as well as tiny particles. The consequences of this theory are numerous like you mentioned the parallel universe.

Answer 3

Too many words, not enough time. I'd still like to get my opinion in, though. If this is an attempt to explain religion and spirituality, I'm skeptical. If there is no scientific evidence of any of this, it's not even worth thinking about. To my understanding, we know very little about how the brain works. A single neuron's chemistry is pretty simple I think. And we know a little about what certain parts of the brain does. Memory seems pretty simple as well. But we really have no idea about how it thinks. You can philosophize all you want, but with all the order in our everyday thinking, there has to be an ordered way the brain does stuff, like a computer. And I fear that once we figure it all out, we'll be stunned to find out that we're actually really stupid beings. By that time, we'll have computers that can think on their own and better than us. That's another thing: artificial intelligence. Computers have an ordered way of doing things. That's really their limitation. And they can't invent or think on their own. They need human input or they aren't assigned a function. They don't have any way of assigning themselves a function. Artificial intelligence goes beyond the basic concept of a computer. It needs to be programmed to know about something. A computer can't learn something new, some new concept never conceived by human minds. Because they don't yet understand that concept. They don't understand anything. We do understand. Or at least think we do. Maybe that's the secret. Maybe, by evolution, we are convinced of certain things and that makes the sense of understanding. Maybe we are computers on the inside, having ordered ways of doing things. But on the outside, on the conscious side, we're human beings, seeming without order. I'm going way off topic. What do I think of their theory? Personally, I think it stinks. Quantum mechanics doesn't make a lot of sense to me and I think "quantum consciousness" is an attempt to explain something of which there is no true evidence that exists in the first place. If they want to gain acceptance from the scientific community, they'll have to at least explain how this could have come up by evolution.

Answer 4

String theory focuses on the mathematical constructs of linearly independent dimensions beyond the fourth dimension of time, and requires these models to be mathematically consistent (a tough and rigorous process which constrains the systems substantially in how they operate). Limited successes have been found with dimensions from 11 to 100+ in predicting some events at both the quantum scale and the universal scale. The dimensions are best visualized by starting with the familiar 3 dimensions (3-D) and noticing the impact of the fourth dimension, time, in allowing all three dimensions to pass through it. The fifth dimension, thought by some to be spirit, allows all four dimensions to move through it, and so on and so forth. The current thought is that as more dimensions are added, they (like the spirit) as less easily observed/noticed with our very 4D minds and methods of investigation, but they nevertheless affect our mathematical model of reality which easily sees past 4D and allows us to bridge the well-acknowledged gaps in science between the quantum through to the cosmic. Parallel universes are one attempt to explain a possible interpretation for these additional dimensions. Some mathematical models (initially created and refined mathematically without any basis in reality and then tested with reality) actually weight some of the additional dimensions or strings with different weights in order to minimize the unwanted effects of some of the additional dimensions for a better agreement with experiment. Most people consider this to be cheating, or "Monday night quarter backing," in that it attempts to predict the plays by forcing the model to conform to what is already known instead of requiring it to predict the unknown.

Explaining Quantum Mechanics can get lengthy, so to keep it short and simple, it basically uses wave equations, probabilities, and statistical math with the assumptions that there exists no definite reality except as probabilities until it is measured and that there exists a natural and absolute limit to the accuracy of any measurement, likely resulting from the affect of the measurement process on the properties of the object being measured. Those scientists loyalty to Quantum Mechanics have launched their own campaign for a unified theory which will hopefully account for unaccounted variables which occassionally yield unexpected deviations from their models. The fact that we cannot accurately predict the behavior of quantum particles has lead many to say that the particles have minds of their own, are sometimes disobedient, or are unpredictable, but I personally chalk all that up to excuses for a lack of understanding. As Arthur C. Clarke once said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Answer 5

I wouldn't say I'm educated in the field but I've gone through a hell of a lot of popular science and some academic textbooks.

For quantum mechanics I'd recommend 'In search of schrödinger's cat' by John Gribbin and the 'elegant universe' by brian greene for string theory.

Quantum mechanics changes the way you think more than any other field of inquiry I think. It just blows you away.

Answer 6

String theory is crazy. Imagine this: you take the strings of a guitar and take them off the guitar, and form them into a circle, keeping the tension the same as when it was on the guitar, then u play the guitar by plucking the circular strings, and you get perfect music. That, is string theory.

Answer 7

11 dimensional string theory has not produced anything.

It is possible that the 7 dimensions of space that are not perceived are mathematical deception, and therefore string theory is a theory of nothing, as you will find if you read the wikipedia article on string theory all the way to the end.

Answer 8

string theory?

A string walks into a bar with a few friends and orders a beer. The bartender says, "I'm sorry, but we don't serve strings here."

The string walks away a little upset and sits down with his friends. A few minutes later he goes back to the bar and orders a beer.
The bartender, looking a little exasperated, says, "I'm sorry, we don't serve strings here."

So the string goes back to his table. Then he gets an idea. He ties himself in a loop and messes up the top of his hair. Then he walks back up to the bar and orders a beer.

The bartender squints at him and says, "Hey, aren't you a string?"

And the string says, "Nope, I'm a frayed knot."

just playing around.........

Answer 9

I would seriously recommend reading Dr. Stephen Hawking's "The Universe in a Nutshell". It is an amusing, informative and well written look at theoretical physics by one of the leading theoretical mathematicians of our time. Even this blonde could understand it.

Answer 10

well, I'm a freshman in college, so my opinions and thoughts on this matter are limited, but, it seems to me that as many dimensions we can create, I'm curious to see proof of the existance.