
The Present Phase of Stagnation in the Foundations of Physics Is Not Normal - pseudolus
http://nautil.us/blog/the-present-phase-of-stagnation-in-the-foundations-of-physics-is-not-normal
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infogulch
Previously on HN (4 days ago, 250pt, 180 comments):

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18493019](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18493019)

Looks like the author republished on Nautilus.

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hodgesrm
I must have missed that. It's still an interesting read.

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drpossum
This article has a huge number of problems. To say "not a single one" of
theory prediction was right overlooks the Higgs. To call all the theorists
work "predictions" and calling them "wrong" is employing phrases which
undermines the scientific method of hypothesis testing and devalues the work
of people trying to understand the foundations of physics. To do those tests
and get null results is valuable. We could not make progress with those
questions still open.

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danharaj
The Higgs boson was predicted in 1967 whereas the article talks about physics
in the last 40 years, which excludes that prediction. 40 years is not a
particularly cherry-picked number. If HEP hadn't produced a confirmed
prediction in _30 years_ that still would be worth calling stagnation.

Your understanding of the scientific method is flawed. I can come up with
thousands of HEP predictions that would be easily falsified, causing a
proliferation of null results and all of them absolutely worthless.

A null result is useful when it points you in a better direction.

