
Is the inflationary universe a scientific theory? - mpweiher
http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2017/10/is-inflationary-universe-scientific.html
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neom
This is generally a really good interview with Penrose - Additionally, there
are a few spots scattered through it where he specifically talks about why he
has come around to Inflation as a reasonable theory.

Sir Roger Penrose: What We All Need to Know About Physics
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNqnbELDO5A](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNqnbELDO5A)

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badosu
I really cringed at the title and explanation on the subsequent article, even
though it presents good information.

Rigorously speaking a theory is a body of established scientific knowledge, in
which case is classically defined to be a set of propositions that describe
phenomena and has proved to be the case for some measure of accuracy via
experimentation.

So the theory of inflation was never a theory in this sense, just an
hypothesis that seems to hold some water, more akin to a conjecture. 'Theory'
in this case, and in most of human interaction, being used for practical
purposes to signal that we're talking about something scientists take
seriously and waste time upon.

That's not a problem for me, just an annoyance when people use the term in a
more serious and controversial manner without understanding this distinction.

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philipov
The salient quality of a theory, or a scientific hypothesis if you prefer, is
that it can be tested, at least in principle. I am not a physicist, but it
seems like, at least in principle, there's a way to falsify the inflation
hypothesis, even though we might not be able to practically carry it out.

Personally, I'm a fan of Penrose's idea that what appears as inflation is
instead the infinite limit of a previous universe, and that there's no big
bang at all: just an endless stream of infinitely expanding universes.

> _" The group’s fight against inflation isn’t news."_

Oh! What an unfortunate turn of phrase for someone to use to describe their
topic. If even the reporter doesn't think this is newsworthy, why are they
writing about it?

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growt
>> "The group’s fight against inflation isn’t news."

> Oh! What an unfortunate turn of phrase for someone to use to describe their
> topic. If even the reporter doesn't think this is newsworthy, why are they
> writing about it?

I think the author of the article is german (I'm german too) and this sentence
is maybe a "false friend". What she most likely meant is that the groups goals
are already well known.

~~~
mfukar
The phrase is used in English to convey the same meaning, as well. The GP is
probably being intentionally dense for some effect that eludes me.

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Chiba-City
The ease of repeating a calculation against a data set or recording such a
dataset from instrument readings is not exactly the same repetition of a lab
or factory recipe outcome. Science concerns data collected and copied
yesterday. Tekne concerns repeatable outcomes reproduced tomorrow.
Distinctions between the endless feast of science and endless labors of tekne
are pretty clear.

