Thursday, November 05, 2020

Ed Witten

 So I made a note to myself six months ago that simply said, "Ed Witten." I had no recall whatsoever why I made this notation to myself so I went down a Ed Witten rabbit hole. 

Turns out Ed Witten is a "genius's genius." The guy is the only physicist to ever win the Fields Medal which is the equivalent of the Nobel Prize but for math. He's also the creator of M-Theory which is the hot "new" thing in the world of String Theory (it unifies the five different versions of String Theory).

Then it hit me that I must of heard of Witten on some podcast and bingo. It was a podcast between Lex Fridman and Eric Weinstein. And then I recalled that they were derisive of both Witten and String Theory. Given how I feel about String Theory - I probably agreed with them.  

If you've gotten this far you're probably wondering why I bothered writing this post. Simple - in case I ever find another note to myself that says,"Ed Witten."

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