Can Artificial Intelligence Crack the Enigma of String Theory’s Fidelity to Reality? A Humorous Inquiry
“Does String Theory Actually Describe the World? AI May Be Able to Tell”
“In the mid-2000s, the landscape of possibilities swelled. String theory, a contender for a unified theory of nature, further complicated this image: The theory could encompass any particle physics model researchers could dream up. The proliferation of options led to a crisis within the field of theoretical particle physics. It’s still under way.” (Source: Wired.com)
Ah, the wonderful realm of theoretical particle physics, where reality takes a backseat, and an overflowing abundance of theoretical options leads to a state of existential anxiety. Fasten your seat belts, ladies and gentlemen, we’re about to dive head first into the never-ending wonders of string theory.
For those not well versed in techie nerd speak let’s simplify; String theory is essentially an ambitious attempt to bridge the gap between the subatomic (think quarks and all that quantum weirdness) and cosmological phenomena (like black holes and the creation of the universe itself). But truth be told, string theory hasn’t yet attained any major victories, and considering the mind-numbing scenarios it offers, it has sent scientists scurrying for shelter.
Now let’s toss in another variable, Algorithms, or in other words, artificial intelligence (AI). Because, why not add a dash of confusion to the already chaotic pandemonium? It seems that tech maestros are now harnessing AI to detangle string theory’s perplexing probabilities and locate the most realistic outcomes from the array of countless scenarios.
So here’s the lowdown. Theoretical physicist Michal P. Heller and computational scientist Tomasz R. Biesiadzinski were not satisfied just contributing to the existing chaos. Instead, they decided to employ AI to catalog the abundant possibilities, in an attempt to find a pattern – presumably because manually scrolling through Google’s results for ‘string theory probabilities’ was too mainstream. They dove headfirst into neural networks, training an AI to identify the most likely scenarios amidst the wide-ranging landscape. And lo and behold, a star was born (not a literal one).
Now isn’t that a ride? And like all thrilling suspense stories, whether this Artificial Intelligence will stand up to its promise and help make sense of the enigma of string theory remains to be seen. But one thing is certain, in the roller coaster ride of theoretical particle physics, there’s never a boring moment!
Until next time remember, sometimes science is more fiction than…well, science.