Mathematics and the Universe

[Purple Rabbit]

Purple Rabbit, these 'laws' are explained in our book we have chosen:
'God: The Failed Hypothesis'. No doubt what you have said, will be covered in detail by Stenger. We can discuss this once we've read the book. Thanks again.

May the force be with you.

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I also think it is significant that the "fundamental" physics that is elegantly expressed arose from theory instead of experimentation, and is elegant because our minds seek symmetry. Some of that theory, such as relativity, has been taken as confirmed by certain observable phenomenon at the macroscopic level. But more advanced physics, and here I am speaking of quantum mechanics in particular, arose purely from experimental observance of extremely surprising, baffling phenomenon that cannot be described elegantly in mathematics. The theoretical school of physics cried foul as the experimental physicists presented their findings. But that theoretical school has been discredited to a large degree.

I don't agree that fundamental physics arose from theory instead of experimentation. The starting point for Einstein's Special Relativity was to take the results from the Michelson-Morley experiment (MME) as an elementary result and starting point for his theorizing. In MME the speed of light was measured in two perpendicular directions. It was designed to measure differences that would be attributed to a hypothetical aether in which light was supposed to travel much in the sense that waves on water need water to exist. The existence of this mythical 'aether' (still found as a word used in the world of radio broadcast) that supposedly permeated all of space, certainly permeated almost all of the scientific community in Einstein's days. It was Einstein's genius and also an important feat for empiricism to take the results of MME seriously.

There are some theories in physics however that not yet have been tested experimentally. The most obvious one is M-brane theory (aka superstring theory), but to all scientists in the field it is clear that M-brane theory is in desperate need for experimental proof to shake off it's current hypothetical status. In the scientific community some debate on this is going on. The debate is nicely covered by Lee Smolin in his "The Trouble With Physics".