(January 8, 2014 at 6:41 pm)Pickup_shonuff Wrote: This irritates me about scientists. They use "theory" in two distinct ways and then express frustration when the public misapplies the term ("Evolution is only a theory!"). Brian Greene's multiverse "theory" is a scientific hypothesis and requires confirmation by evidence to be anything more.
(I may be completely off my rocker here, but I've got the ball, and Imma run with it.)
I believe you are conflating two different meanings of theory here.
Brian Green's multiverse theory is a mathematical model, and belongs purely to world of theoretical physics. As such, it is not strictly scientific, as you alluded. However, as it does belong to the world of theoretical physics and not (yet) to the world of science, it would be inappropriate to apply the scientific definition of theory to it.