Regardless of any deviations, it was clear I was supposed to end up in math and physics.
Interpretation
The quote highlights a strong sense of purpose and destiny in a person's journey toward studying mathematics and physics.
In this quote, Edward Witten expresses a conviction that despite any changes or detours he may have taken in life, his path ultimately led him to the fields of mathematics and physics. It underscores the idea that some individuals have a predestined calling that guides them toward their true passions and talents, suggesting that our life paths may be influenced by an intrinsic purpose.
In practice
A graduation speech to inspire students to pursue their passions.
Quantum mechanics brought an unexpected fuzziness into physics because of quantum uncertainty, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. String theory does so again because a point particle is replaced by a string, which is more spread out.
But the beauty of Einstein's equations, for example, is just as real to anyone who's experienced it as the beauty of music. We've learned in the 20th century that the equations that work have inner harmony.
I wouldn't have thought that a wrong theory should lead us to understand better the ordinary quantum field theories or to have new insights about the quantum states of black holes.
You have that one basic string, but it can vibrate in many ways. But we're trying to get a lot of particles because experimental physicists have discovered a lot of particles.
Even before string theory, especially as physics developed in the 20th century, it turned out that the equations that really work in describing nature with the most generality and the greatest simplicity are very elegant and subtle.
It's an exaggeration to say that I came up with M-theory.
The theory of evolution by cumulative natural selection is the only theory we know of that is in principle capable of explaining the existence of organized complexity.
If you set out in a spaceship to find the one planet in the galaxy that has life, the odds against your finding it would be so great that the task would be indistinguishable, in practice, from impossible.
Innovation is everyones responsibility, not just R&Ds.
How lucky we are to live in this time / the first moment in human history / when we are in fact visiting other worlds
There is no science in this world like physics. Nothing comes close to the precision with which physics enables you to understand the world around you. It's the laws of physics that allow us to say exactly what time the sun is going to rise. What time the eclipse is going to begin. What time the eclipse is going to end.
All policies should be guided by science, not just whose voice is the loudest.
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