Loop Quantum Gravity vs. String Theory

[SLD]

Which one do you think provides a better way towards a quantum theory of gravity?

I’ve always thought most physicists favored string theory. But after reading The Shape Of Inner Space, by Shing Tung Yau, I was concerned that there are at least 10^500 possible Calabi-Yau spaces that could fit our universe. We'll never find the one. Now reading a book on LQG and am very impressed. It seems to solve a lot of singularities, including the at the Big Bang. But then why isn’t it considered the most likely road to quantum theory of gravity?

SLD

 

[skepticalbip]

Just personal opinion. I don't think either will get us there. Not to say that someone will not come up with a GUT but I think it will be by someone who is able to "think outside the box" and give us a novel view of the universe. Newtonian mechanics was a gigantic leap that contradicted much of the then widely accepted physics just as Relativity was another gigantic leap that contradicted much of the base of Newtonian mechanics. I think the GUT, when (or if) it comes, will necessarily show where some of the basic underpinnings of one or both of the currently accepted theories of QM and/or Relativity is wrong. As I see, both string theory and QLG are damned careful not to fuck with any of current understandings in either QM or Relativity.

bippy

 

[ZiprHead]

"How will we raise the children, Leonard?"

 

[barbos]

Both are wrong in my opinion.

 

[Kharakov]

Both are wrong in my opinion.

Your scientifically valid opinion is good enough for me. We better look elsewhere, and ignore these ideas.

 

[barbos]

Both are wrong in my opinion.

Your scientifically valid opinion is good enough for me. We better look elsewhere, and ignore these ideas.

I just don't want to broadcast my ideas, since there is a chance they are actually good.

 

[skepticalbip]

It seems to me that after almost a hundred years of the world's best minds (plus a hell of a lot of others) trying unsuccessfully and twenty or thirty years or so of them using string theory or QLG to put two puzzle pieces together then most likely there is either something wrong with one or both of the puzzle pieces or something wrong with the idea that they can fit together.