From New Scientist:
You think there’s a multiverse? Get real
COSMOLOGY is in crisis. Recent experiments have given us an increasingly precise narrative of the history of our universe, but attempts to interpret the data have led to a picture of a “preposterous universe” that eludes explanation in the terms familiar to scientists.
Would they be thinking of stuff like cosmologists Ellis and Silk being actually allowed to say in Nature, that
This year, debates in physics circles took a worrying turn. Faced with difficulties in applying fundamental theories to the observed Universe, some researchers called for a change in how theoretical physics is done. They began to argue — explicitly — that if a theory is sufficiently elegant and explanatory, it need not be tested experimentally, breaking with centuries of philosophical tradition of defining scientific knowledge as empirical. We disagree. As the philosopher of science Karl Popper argued: a theory must be falsifiable to be scientific. Article.
Right. Because the multiversers don’t have the goods.
And the lack of evidence for the multiverse is talkable now in pop science?
Loss of rationality, assuming you had any to begin with, is a high price to pay for the bottom up naturalism of one’s dreams to be true. Some are willing to relax the standards of evidence for a multiverse, so they can believe it in good faith.
That’s what the row is about. Did some at New Scientist get that? We don’t know because most of their article is paywalled.
By contrast, the article in Nature or our “So tell us again, WHY are you funding this utter nonsense? Let us give you the name of a good, affordable co-dependence counsellor… ” response. Both are free.
Someone who busts through the New Scientist paywall: Get back to us and tell us if they appear to get the fact that science ‘s oxygen is evidence, not pleasing speculation.
For a quick overview of how we found ourselves in this swamp and how to get out of it, see The Science Fictions series at your fingertips (cosmology). Also free.
Lose the pom poms.
Fun: Straighten up and fly right? Here’s how to do it.
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