The Energy of Empty Space
Finished reading this fascinating piece by Lawrence Krauss at The Edge. It is interesting in itself as a survey of the state of Physics today, starting from the issue of the energy of empty space. I’m not sure however if his critique of String Theory as a mere formalism rather than a theory is uncontroversial… even if I, sort of, agree.
What I found the most fascinating is his observation that apparently many physicists no longer recoil from a discussion of the anthropic principle as an answer to some of our basic questions. This is new… as Krauss says, and as I remember, some years ago, the concensus of opinion certainly was that there’s only one allowed law of nature that works, that ultimately we might discover fundamental symmetries and mathematical principles that cause the nature to be the way it is.