Now that even John Ellis has unofficially excluded fairy fields, not much has changed. The professional theorists are busy sipping champagne, celebrating their luck in living in interesting times. Nobody appears to feel any need to admit that they were wrong. Even in a few months time, with the official exclusion, business will no doubt carry on as usual, and some young man will eventually be allowed to figure out why fairy fields do not exist.
Meanwhile, in a land far, far away, if one forgets that physics exists, one could argue that fate has been generous lately. My favourite cheap food is on special at the supermarket. I had to hitch some distance the other day, but had no trouble finding rides. On the last leg, the driver happened to be taking a rather obscure route, thereby saving me a long walk. Even the weather has been rather kind. I was forced to camp outside one night, but the wind died away and the temperature miraculously stayed above zero.
14 years ago
Let's get one fact straight here: the basic reason that my career was proactively destroyed was essentially because I did not believe in fairy fields (and hence had research interests distinct from what a large number of dudes thought I should be doing).
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, they were all dudes.
ReplyDeleteWhen was it an issue? I thought you worked on quantum gravity.
ReplyDeleteMitchell, which QG theorists do you know who have always been against the Higgs boson? I never met a single one who was willing to listen to my point of view.
ReplyDeleteOutside of string theory, I thought they were happy if they could get matter into quantum gravity in any way at all.
ReplyDeleteMitchell, obviously the loopies should have listened to me, but as you know, they don't actually know much.
ReplyDeleteWhen Higgs is officially excluded, you will have a lot of opportunities. And why a man and not a woman that will figure out?
ReplyDeleteDaniel, I am 44 years old. I have been a physicist since I was a teenager, but I have never met one single professional male physicist who took my ideas about theory seriously. The culture is deeply sexist, and that is why there are still so few women. And I am insulted that you don't know that, in 2011. If I had been a man, I would have been a respected physics professor before I was 30 years old.
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