Lee Smolin Quotes

String theory seems to be incompatible with a world in which a cosmological constant has a positive sign, which is what the observations indicate.

We are the result of processes much more complicated than the small aspects of our lives and societies over which we have some control.

In the theory of electric fields it is assumed that points have meaning. ...Physicists using general relativity... cannot speak of a point, except by naming some features of the field lines that will uniquely distinguish that point. ...the network of relationships evolve with time... constantly changing.

Spacetime... turns out to be discrete, described by a structure called spin foam.

I was joined by Carlo Rovelli, and we were able to make a full-fledged quantum theory of gravity... This became loop quantum gravity.

There is nothing beyond the world except what we see, no background to it except its particular history.

The landscape problem and the problem of background independence are closely linked. The latter is the only route the former has to experimental confirmation.

I believe that the main lesson of relativity and quantum theory is that the world is nothing but an evolving network of relationships.

In both quantum theory and general relativity, we encounter predictions of physically sensible quantities becoming infinite. This is likely the way that nature punishes impudent theorists who dare to break her unity. ...If infinities are signs of missing unification, a unified theory will have none. It will be what we call a finite theory.

It is absurd in general relativity to speak of a universe in which nothing happens.

Combine general relativity and quantum theory into a single theory that can claim to be the complete theory of nature. This is called the problem of quantum gravity.

There is no meaning to space that is independent of the relationships among real things of the world. ...Space is nothing apart from the things that exist. ...If we take out all the words we are not left with an empty sentence, we are left with nothing.

I... propose that time and its passage are fundamental and real and the hopes and beliefs about timeless truths and timeless realms are mythology.

There is no time apart from change. There is no such thing as a clock outside the network of changing relationships. ...one can only compare how fast one thing is happening with the rate of some other process.

There are unfortunately not a few good professional physicists who still think about the world as if space and time had an absolute meaning.