The Insti­tu­te of Art and Ideas

Eric Wein­stein clas­hes with Bri­an Gree­ne over string theory’s place in phy­sics.
Wein­stein is noto­rious for his stance against the string theo­ry community’s toxic cul­tu­re, pre­vious­ly tel­ling co-foun­der Michio Kaku he is “out of con­trol”. In this tiff with string theo­rist Bri­an Gree­ne, Wein­stein once again con­fronts both the cul­tu­re around string theo­ry and the vali­di­ty of the model itself.

String theo­ry has been domi­nant in theo­re­ti­cal phy­sics for thir­ty years, with more sci­en­ti­fic papers ari­sing from it than any other theo­ry. But cri­tics argue the theo­ry has held undue influence and it is an error to pur­sue it.
Is it time to move on from string theo­ry, reco­g­ni­se that the search for super­sym­me­try has fai­led, and seek alter­na­ti­ve accounts of the uni­ver­se that are sup­port­ed by obser­va­ti­on and expe­ri­ment? Or is the con­tin­ued domi­nan­ce of string theo­ry jus­ti­fied by its poten­ti­al to uni­fy our under­stan­ding of the uni­ver­se once and for all?

Watch the full deba­te at

Should we aban­don the mul­ti­ver­se theo­ry? | Sabi­ne Hos­sen­fel­der, Roger Pen­ro­se, Michio Kaku

What is dri­ving the mulit­ver­se theo­ry? Are the mul­ti­ver­se sto­ries only a sti­cky-plas­ter solu­ti­on to the Big Bang theo­ry pro­blem? Lea­ding thin­kers Sabi­ne Hos­sen­fel­der, Roger Pen­ro­se and Michio Kaku debate.

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