A Position on the Roles of Science, Philosophy, and Religion in Particle Physics

“Why then you're as mad as me. No, madder. For I distrust 'reality' and its moron mother, the universe, while you fasten your innocence to fallible devices which pretend at happy endings.”

― Ray Bradbury, Now and Forever: Somewhere a Band Is Playing & Leviathan '99

Physicist Briane Greene expounds on superstring theory in his book The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory.  In Chapter 8, he offers an appraisal of the state of experimental evidence for string theory at the turn of the century, expounding on the search for supersymmetry, the geometry of multi-dimensional space, and other possibilities.  Some of the best methods for detecting evidence for string theory may lie in the study of dark matter.  CERN is conducting such studies on the polar ice caps, and has recently deployed a new, more heavily arrayed detector.  Theoretically, the detector could measure supersymmetry and spin variables of neutrinos, establishing evidence for string theory beyond the discovery of the gravitational force.  While still under deployment, the initial outline of the project and abstract are available online, from the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics.  If supersymmetry can be observed in neutrinos by CERN, there will be a “stone” rolled down the mountain from theorists to experimentalists, and evidence of strings will be made apparent.  As noted, the premature discovery of gravity by Einstein serves as a smoking gun, of sorts, and for people that look to string theory as a model for the physical universe, this is compelling enough evidence – “good enough” philosophy, to borrow, and turn a phrase from, ethnographer Nancy Scheper-Hughes.

​ Turning to some of the experimental possibilities, one presents itself in the form of F-theory.  In F-theory, a particular Calabi-Yuau manifold, in twelve-dimensional space, satisfies the unification, and pertinent to the reading, the low-energy string oscillation requirements of the three elementary string particles.  Particle physicists at Cornell University have submitted their denotation of this unusual manifold configuration, even though it has other problems.  These data from Cornell are also available online.  Nevertheless, the low-energy oscillation requirement of the fundamental string particles has been satisfied mathematically, depending on how the problem with dimensions is quantified and resolved, according to nascent F-theory.

​ The real question that Greene is addressing in his “Appraisal” of the state of experimentation in quantum physics is about, as Sheldon Glasgow maintained in the 1980’s, whether “mathematics and aesthetics supplant and transcend mere experiment.” This is a fair question because science has a method that is not negotiable.  In that vein, scientists are not prone to, and more importantly, allowed to, extrapolate like the metaphysician, who draws aesthetically inspired inferences that are not testable or that are otherwise unsubstantiated, uniformly, by mathematics.  And even those mathematicians and aesthetic-minded scientists that do only draw reference from the physical sciences are still metaphysicians, and in this sense immune to the rigors and expectations of science.  Many distinct aspects of the field of the physical sciences differentiate it from both religion and philosophy.  In that way, religion and philosophy are dueling partners in a guessing game to be sure, but they are not aligned, by reference, either with science or one another.

​ For these reasons – a “good enough” social science, the near-likelihood of experimental evidence for string theory, and for the absence of the whims of metaphysicians – quantum mechanics and superstring theory represent for many a ‘best candidate’ scientific paradigm for which to refer when considering the things that god might think about – “the mind of god,” as Stephen Hawking maintained.  The paradigm serves as a referent, and not a theology or metaphysics, even for the physicalist, and indeed for most particle physicists, astrophysicists, nuclear scientists, and many other experts around the world.  To that end, we, the people, through international cooperation and mutual dialogue, have adopted Japanese plasma-chamber technology despite the Cal-Tech invention of focused laser energy, which will be used to build the first fusion reactor.  This device may be capable of a sustained reaction, providing limitless power to humanity.  This is, in one way, an excellent example of how being informed differentiates the metaphysician, or just your average, strong intellectual person, from the theologian or the scientist – as a social animal, looking to build a better world, and open to all possibilities.  She is neither dogmatic nor is she a rigid empiricist, but only informed by science, philosophy, and religious tradition.