Wrong! On the Joys of Discovery, Holes and Incompleteness. (Comic #170)
Posted on August 20, 2013 by liz

This post was inspired by a recent article in the New York Times, "A Black Hole Mystery Wrapped in a Firewall Paradox."

The article starts with "This time, they say, Einstein might really be wrong" and goes on to discuss recent calculations about blackholes that indicate that there might be a hole in our understanding of reality. Einstein might not be wrong, but something is a bit off or incomplete that becomes apparent when dealing with crazy intensity of a black hole.

“I was a yo-yo on this,” said one of the more prolific authors in the field, Leonard Susskind of Stanford. He paused and added, “I haven’t changed my mind in a few months now.”

So much for the perception that scientists are rigid thinkers, this is one of several quotes from scientists marveling in what they don't know and how confusing it all is. I've never met Leonard Susskind, though I hope to carve out the time to hang out with his Theoretical Minimum course materials. The impression I get from him and other scientists is confusion yes, but also delight. There is a hole in our understanding! Things don't add up and that gives us something to explore! Just when we thought we had it all figured out we found out there are more spaces for discovery.

I should add, most of physics is still ok. Newtonian physics aren't a complete picture, but it's very handy for dealing with most of the stuff that happens on earth. "Wrong" these days in physics seems to mean, amazingly close, but we keep discovering even weirder stuff so we have to keep looking, rather than "Oh no! Heavy objects do fall faster than light objects!" kind of wrongness.

Transcript

Thing 2: I was wrong about something

Thing 2: And now I don't know what I know

Thing 1: Are you ok?

Thing 2: I'm excited

Thing 2: Everything will be a discovery

3 thoughts on “Wrong! On the Joys of Discovery, Holes and Incompleteness. (Comic #170)”

  1. Elissa Feit

    Sorry… I’m taken aback by this: “So much for the perception that scientists are rigid thinkers,.”

    They must be teaching science badly at school, because science is all about updating theories in light of any contradictory data. I think that requirement demands a flexible mind 🙂

    Other than that, the rest is great. Love the things without arms and legs!

    1. liz

      Sadly, popular culture has a lot more power than classrooms around perceptions of science and a lot of those representations are still about rigidity. Especially now that I live in a country where some science classrooms teach creationism as much as evolution and clowns rap against science because incomplete understanding of gravity means it must be god’s hand!

      I’ve always loved this xkcd comic for a more accurate description of scientists http://xkcd.com/877/ hopefully my comics can be part of the bigger kick arse conversation about the niftyness and conversations in science.

  2. Zephyr

    as a budding physicist (just started a Master’s program), I appreciate your take on it. Thank you for reminding me about the joys of science (sometimes I get depressed about homework… well actually mainly about not doing it when I need to study more to catch up; the material is still interesting :P).

    But procrastin’ aside, yayy science! =D

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