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CATEGORIES:Lecture
DESCRIPTION:The famous Cornell physicist David Mermin once said that the st
 andard approach to understanding Quantum Mechanics was to "Shut Up And Calc
 ulate!"\, a quote also often (mis)attributed to Richard Feynman.  Over the 
 years\, "Shut Up And Calculate" has become something of a pejorativecharact
 erization of an approach to physics\, said by some to be intellectually laz
 y and philosophically unsophisticated\, the method of philistines merely "s
 olving equations" rather than "Asking ProfoundQuestions". In  this talk I w
 ill explain why this is utter nonsense\, giving a full-throated three cheer
 s for "Shut Up And Calculate" in fundamental physics. I will describe\, thr
 ough both historical and contemporary examples\, how the very experience of
  grappling with the most conceptual issues in physics forces the "Shut Up a
 nd Calculate" approach on us. Far from being the product of an unwillingnes
 s to think about big questions\, "Shut up and Calculate" is born of the dee
 pest thinking about\, and the greatestrespect for\, such questions\, couple
 d with a desire to find concrete paths to attacking them\, rather than gapi
 ng at them in perpetual awe. I will also argue that the "Shut Up And Calcul
 ate" philosophy is certain to grow in influence over time\,  as we draw eve
 r closer to uncovering laws of physics governing the most fundamental eleme
 nts of reality.
DTEND:20170926T004500Z
DTSTAMP:20260420T190624Z
DTSTART:20170925T233000Z
GEO:41.583834;-93.641806
LOCATION:Rockfeller Hall\, Schwartz Auditorium
SEQUENCE:0
SUMMARY:Three Cheers for "Shut Up and Calculate" in Fundamental Physics
UID:tag:localist.com\,2008:EventInstance_2986473
URL:https://events.cornell.edu/event/three_cheers_for_shut_up_and_calculate
 _in_fundamental_physics
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