Oddbean new post about login | logout Eric Weinstein can be long-winded with a hell of a lot of setup. It took me an hour to come to the realization of what he is speculating (I think) which I will summarize for you thusly: 1. Breakthroughs in physics are dangerous to humanity 2. The breakthrough that combines quantum and gravity will give someone enormous power 3. Edward Witten is very odd, crazy smart, and seems to have directed everybody towards a dead end, possibly to save us by preventing the next breakthrough.
the suggestion re point 3 is incredible to consider.
That wasn't his point, but at the time I made the post I thought that it was. Nonetheless it is an interesting possibility.
Ok well now I'm 2 hours in and I don't know what his main points are. Lots of "look at this oddity" but no points. Odd fellow.
The way you say (3) it sounds like he's suggesting Witten was some kind of time traveler or spook. I did not get that nuance from the interview. Just that Witten is weird and has his brain wired differently than all others in the room in an uncanny but impressing way. Eric clearly wants to advance science cause we can't stay on this rock forever and he blames the lack of breakthroughs mainly on too much accountability for those crazy geniuses that would often run off in the wrong direction but occasionally make breakthrough discoveries.
I get the distinct impression however that Eric deeply craves recognition and is deeply unhappy that he doesn't have a breakthrough or a nobel prize, and I suspect some of his stories like that his equasions were stolen by Ed Witten might not be entirely truthful. I saw a video where he gave a talk at some university, and it was pretty clear to me that the room was empty but he was trying to make it appear as if he was invited and was talking to students. I suspect his work on E8 isn't coherent enough to have gotten anywhere. When he talks about physics he jumps around a lot as if he is trying to signal that he understands all these different things... but what he says isn't logically coherent it is scatterbrained, and he knows it so he weaves his narrative not in a way that clearly explains anything, but just in a way to explain that he knows all these different things, see, and why won't the experts come talk to him? Because he isn't quite coherent, that's why. Crazy high I.Q. though, he does have that.
So I find fascinating that he suggests faster-than-light travel being likely possible, putting the universe in reach, resolving the Fermi paradox by assuming we are the North Sentinel Island of the galaxy. This idea is not new to science fiction writers. In Star Trek it's the "Prime Directive" and many other works of fiction follow this same theme.