Robert Matthews and Eric Weinstein on scientific progress and lone geniuses

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Courtesy of the Daily Grail, here's an article by Robert Matthews, Visiting Professor of Science at Aston University in the UK, arguing that over the last few decades "the scientific enterprise has taken a wrong turn", and that scientific progress has stalled. He particularly highlights theoretical physics and medical research:
https://www.thenational.ae/uae/science/l...s-1.678559

Matthews quotes a short video presentation by Eric Weinstein, suggesting that a way around the impasse may be to look outside the scientific establishment, to the heterodox - perhaps to lone geniuses, such as Einstein:
http://bigthink.com/videos/eric-weinstei...ieve-again

Weinstein is a mathematician by background, who did a Ph.D. in mathematical physics at Harvard but now manages an investment company. His presentation is entirely concerned with theoretical physics, and he himself in 2013 proposed a radically different approach to that field, involving an "observerse" and 14-dimensional space. It generated a lot of publicity then, and was praised by Marcus du Sautoy (Richard Dawkins's successor as Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford), but subsequently appears to have sunk without trace:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013...s-problems

Weinstein's Theory aside, I thought his musings about the theoretical physics establishment and outsiders were interesting. I noticed that in his speculations about where new insights might come from, he said that chemists and biologists were unlikely to have anything to contribute. Parapsychologists may be completely off his map.

On another level, this made me wonder whether there were any "lone geniuses" in parapsychology, pointing the way to a radical strategy for advancing the field. I couldn't think of any obvious candidates.  Sad
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(2017-11-28, 11:18 AM)Chris Wrote: Weinstein is a mathematician by background, who did a Ph.D. in mathematical physics at Harvard but now manages an investment company. His presentation is entirely concerned with theoretical physics, and he himself in 2013 proposed a radically different approach to that field, involving an "observerse" and 14-dimensional space. It generated a lot of publicity then, and was praised by Marcus du Sautoy (Richard Dawkins's successor as Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford), but subsequently appears to have sunk without trace:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013...s-problems

I don't know whether "observerse" has any implication about the role played by observers, but I suspect not. It's difficult to find any comments about this theory more recent than the immediate reaction. There are some comments by people saying that they would wait for it to be published formally, and apparently it never has been.
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(2017-11-28, 02:03 PM)Chris Wrote: I don't know whether "observerse" has any implication about the role played by observers, but I suspect not. It's difficult to find any comments about this theory more recent than the immediate reaction. There are some comments by people saying that they would wait for it to be published formally, and apparently it never has been.

Courtesy of the Anomalist - Joe Rogan has interviewed Eric Weinstein several times, most recently a week ago:

1022: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMzjEaNFbAk

1203: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9JLij1obHY

1320: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EWCN3CPhTI
(2017-11-28, 11:18 AM)Chris Wrote: On another level, this made me wonder whether there were any "lone geniuses" in parapsychology, pointing the way to a radical strategy for advancing the field. I couldn't think of any obvious candidates.  Sad
Whatever happened with that "First Sight" proposal by James C. Carpenter?

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