"I feel that we are so close with string theory that—in my moments of greatest optimism—I imagine that any day, the final form of the theory may drop out of the sky and land in someone's lap. But more realistically, I feel that we are now in the process of constructing a much deeper theory than anything we have had before and that well into the twenty-first century, when I am too old to have any useful thoughts on the subject, younger physicists will have to decide whether we have in fact found the final theory."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Edward Witten, Interview (March 4, 1998), as quoted by Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe (1999) Ch. 15 Prospects.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/String_theory
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
String theory
27 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by String theory →
Related Quotes
"... within , string theory is a complex subject. There are few large particle theory groups within major universities…"
"The real world as we know it happens at energies well below the Planck scale, so it is very well described by effecti…"
"... one of the main beefs with the string theory is that it is so flexible you can get almost anything out of it. ...…"
"String theorists, of course, continue to do whatever it is that string theorists do."
"... all of these caveats really work only against the idea that the final theory of nature is a quantum field theory.…"
"String theory... resolves the central dilemma confronting contemporary physics—the incompatibility between quantum me…"
"Currently, string theorists are in a position analogous to an Einstein bereft of the equivalence principle. ...[A] ce…"
"Now, this change from point-particles to strings that are so small they look like points might not sound like it woul…"
"To build matter itself from geometry — that in a sense is what string theory does. It can be thought of that way, esp…"
"Is string theory a futile exercise as physics, as I believe it to be? It is an interesting mathematical specialty and…"