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.
Interpretation
Even incorrect theories can enhance our understanding of complex scientific concepts.
Edward Witten highlights the paradoxical nature of scientific inquiry, where even flawed theories can provoke deeper insights into established fields, such as quantum field theories and the behavior of black holes. This suggests that the journey of exploration in science is as valuable, if not more so, than the pursuit of certainty.
In practice
During a lecture on quantum physics, this quote could illustrate how theoretical exploration is vital for understanding complex phenomena.
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.
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.
Regardless of any deviations, it was clear I was supposed to end up in math and physics.
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.
It is better to have 100 functions operate on one data structure than to have 10 functions operate on 10 data structures.
It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.
Eureka! Eureka!_x000D_ _x000D_ Supposed to have been his cry, jumping naked from his bath and running in the streets, excited by a discovery about water displacement to solve a problem about the purity of a gold crown.
We came all this way to explore the Moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth.
Freedom is absolutely necessary for the progress in science and the liberal arts.
Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's, but apples did not suspend themselves in mid-air, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from apelike ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered.
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