Peter Woit: Unification, Twistors, and the Death of String Theory

Prof. Peter Woit critiques the decline of string theory and outlines his gravi-weak unification approach using Euclidean twistors in Euclidean spacetime. He also examines the role of mathematicians, machine learning, and philosophical issues in the search for quantum gravity.- 00:00:00 - Introduction- 00:00:00 - String theory's fundamental issues | Mathematicians' challenges- 00:02:20 - Spacetime and twistor theory insights- 00:20:00 - Bundles & diffeomorphism groups- 00:38:34 - Spinors as a spacetime point- 00:46:57 - Dominance of string theory & Ed Witten's influence- 00:54:17 - Quest for quantum gravity- 01:03:22 - String theory's lack of predictive power- 01:09:33 - Machine learning meets theoretical physics- 01:18:56 - Personal attacks vs. intellectual debate- 01:24:49 - Mathematicians vs. Physicists | Academic silos- 01:37:15 - Developing a contrarian view & the origin of 'Not Even Wrong'- 01:40:54 - Langlands & representation theory- 01:48:51 - Spacetime is NOT doomed- 01:58:47 - Sean Carroll's crisis in physics (odd responses to criticism)- 02:13:21 - Differentiable structures by dimension- 02:26:10 - Gravi-weak unification & chirality- 02:32:57 - Chern-Simons theory- 02:42:20 - Gravity as torsion or curvature- 02:50:07 - Category theory in physics- 02:56:43 - Defining a fulfilling lifeSPONSORS:- Patreon: https://patreon.com/curtjaimungal (early access to ad-free audio episodes!)- Crypto: https://tinyurl.com/cryptoTOE- PayPal: https://tinyurl.com/paypalTOE- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt- Discord Invite: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs- iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/better-left-unsaid-with-curt-jaimungal/id1521758802- Pandora: https://pdora.co/33b9lfP- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e- Subreddit r/TheoriesOfEverything: https://reddit.com/r/theoriesofeverything- TOE Merch: https://tinyurl.com/TOEmerchRESOURCES:- YouTube link: https://youtu.be/9z3JYb_g2Qs- Not Even Wrong (Peter Woit's Blog): https://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress- Not Even Wrong (Peter Woit's Book): https://amzn.to/40NFeaK- Spacetime is Right-Handed (Peter Woit's Article): https://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/righthanded.pdf | https://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress- Podcast w/ Edward Frankel: https://youtu.be/n_oPMcvHbAc- The Elegant Universe (Brian Greene): https://amzn.to/3sNmk7x- The Trouble With Physics (Lee Smolin): https://amzn.to/47lCCUj- Podcast w/ Sabina Hossenfelder on TOE: https://youtu.be/walaNM7KiYA- Podcast w/ Stephon Alexander Part 1: https://youtu.be/VETxb96a3qk- Podcast w/ Stephon Alexander Λ Sal Pais: https://youtu.be/PE4C7OI7Frg- Podcast w/ Eric Weinstein: https://youtu.be/KElq_MLO1kw- Podcast w/ Stephen Wolfram Part 1: https://youtu.be/1sXrRc3Bhrs- Podcast w/ Stephen Wolfram Part 2: https://youtu.be/xHPQ_oSsJgg- Podcast w/ Jonathan Oppenheim: https://youtu.be/NKOd8imBa2s Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices