He is a really interesting case. He is a real, actual, published theoretical physicist. But his popular science persona made him a bit weird. For example, in this video, alongside Roger Penrose and Sabine Hossenfelder, he looks like a sci-fi hype-man.
Yeah, I remember him on Art Bell back in the 90s and early 2000s. He’s never shied away from trying to inject real science into the pseudoscience crowd. Just because he’s willing to be brave enough to keep a discussion grounded in reality doesn’t mean other guests invited to some event he didn’t organize necessarily color his character. It’s the risk of being a science communicator - you want to communicate real science to people that normally don’t want to hear about it.
To be fair to a counterpoint, string theory hasn’t panned out mathematically as he probably expected, so he has a bit more time to get into all sorts of things these days. I’m more so surprised he hasn’t retired yet.
brave enough to keep a discussion grounded in reality
But that’s just it, he doesn’t keep the discussing grounded in reality. He speaks on things that are vastly out of his purview and says shit that is blatantly false because he thinks he’s an expert on everything just because at one time he did real theoretical physics. Even with physics, he says things for a “general audience” that are so dumbed-down as to be insulting, but worse, grossly inaccurate, leading people to have their misconceptions further ingrained rather than doing what a science communicator should do and clarify misconceptions.
string theory hasn’t panned out mathematically
That math pans out fine. The problem is that it can pan out in virtually an infinite number of different ways that may or may not be valid descriptions of the universe, and nothing but the math can get panned out wrt string theory, at least with current tech or tech that is conceivably feasible.
Sabine Hossenfelder isn’t really a good foil for someone that likes to apply their perspective outside their expertise. Here’s a good video on why she is more similar to him than you would think: Youtube.
Michio Kaku is first a futurist and second an entertainer and third a physicist. He hasn’t published any research since the 90s from what I can tell, and all of his work back in the day was around string theory, which is more or less discarded today because it’s not falsifiable. Clearly he needed a lot of mathematical skill to competently study and discover new string theory concepts, but since the 90s he’s mostly been a science entertainer and a crank babbling about quantum computers, longevity, superintelligence, parallel dimensions, and extraterrestrials, all of which are distinctly not his domain of expertise and most of which are unfalsifiable.
Michio Kaku’s job is to go on TV and go on podcasts and talk about science fiction as if it were real to credulous hosts.
hansolo@lemmy.today 2 months ago
You do know that he’s heavily published professor of theoretical physics, right?
Or did you not understand the words and throw shade at a physicist simply because you don’t know much about theoreticial physics?
kureta@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
He is a really interesting case. He is a real, actual, published theoretical physicist. But his popular science persona made him a bit weird. For example, in this video, alongside Roger Penrose and Sabine Hossenfelder, he looks like a sci-fi hype-man.
hansolo@lemmy.today 2 months ago
Yeah, I remember him on Art Bell back in the 90s and early 2000s. He’s never shied away from trying to inject real science into the pseudoscience crowd. Just because he’s willing to be brave enough to keep a discussion grounded in reality doesn’t mean other guests invited to some event he didn’t organize necessarily color his character. It’s the risk of being a science communicator - you want to communicate real science to people that normally don’t want to hear about it.
To be fair to a counterpoint, string theory hasn’t panned out mathematically as he probably expected, so he has a bit more time to get into all sorts of things these days. I’m more so surprised he hasn’t retired yet.
QuietCupcake@hexbear.net 2 months ago
But that’s just it, he doesn’t keep the discussing grounded in reality. He speaks on things that are vastly out of his purview and says shit that is blatantly false because he thinks he’s an expert on everything just because at one time he did real theoretical physics. Even with physics, he says things for a “general audience” that are so dumbed-down as to be insulting, but worse, grossly inaccurate, leading people to have their misconceptions further ingrained rather than doing what a science communicator should do and clarify misconceptions.
That math pans out fine. The problem is that it can pan out in virtually an infinite number of different ways that may or may not be valid descriptions of the universe, and nothing but the math can get panned out wrt string theory, at least with current tech or tech that is conceivably feasible.
girsaysdoom@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Sabine Hossenfelder isn’t really a good foil for someone that likes to apply their perspective outside their expertise. Here’s a good video on why she is more similar to him than you would think: Youtube.
kureta@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
Yeah. I stopped watching her long ago. But I really like Penrose, so I watched that video for him.
fox@hexbear.net 2 months ago
Michio Kaku is first a futurist and second an entertainer and third a physicist. He hasn’t published any research since the 90s from what I can tell, and all of his work back in the day was around string theory, which is more or less discarded today because it’s not falsifiable. Clearly he needed a lot of mathematical skill to competently study and discover new string theory concepts, but since the 90s he’s mostly been a science entertainer and a crank babbling about quantum computers, longevity, superintelligence, parallel dimensions, and extraterrestrials, all of which are distinctly not his domain of expertise and most of which are unfalsifiable.
Michio Kaku’s job is to go on TV and go on podcasts and talk about science fiction as if it were real to credulous hosts.
hansolo@lemmy.today 2 months ago
Can you explain hour falsifiability is a metric for theoretical physics?
Can you also explain how Evolution is falsifiable?
EnsignRedshirt@hexbear.net 2 months ago
Jordan Peterson is also a published professor. The bar isn’t that high.
TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 2 months ago
theoretical physics is is a lot of pseudo science.
hansolo@lemmy.today 2 months ago
So… Math is pseudoscience?
TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 2 months ago
yes. it’s not a science anymore than painting is.
webkitten@piefed.social 2 months ago
So isn’t Steven Pinker. Doesn’t mean academics can’t be idiots.
hansolo@lemmy.today 2 months ago
Sure, but he’s also not a random kook.