Physics in Crisis: From Multiverses to Fake News

Contents
Preface
About the Author
About the Translator
Chapter 1 Physics: At the Heart of the Crisis in Fundamental Science
	Society in Crisis
	The Crisis in Physics
	The New Conditions: Artificial Intelligence and “Big Data”
	Back to the Beginning: What Is a Physical Law?
Chapter 2 The Success and Limits of Today’s Physics
	Toward Small Distances
		The Success of the Atomic Hypothesis
		From Becquerel to the Higgs Boson
	Toward Big Distances
		Newton and Universal Gravitation
		Einstein, Current Cosmology, and the Big Bang
	Today’s Big Questions
		Dark Matter and Energy
		Problems with the Standard Model
		Irreconcilable General Relativity and Quantum Theory: Superstrings
		The Paradox in Today’s Physics
Chapter 3 Understanding the World
	Accepting or Understanding
	Animism, Monotheism, and Science
	Scientific Consistency
	Alternate Facts
Chapter 4 What Is a Law of Physics?
	Modeling and Parameterizing: The Ideal Gas Law
	The Ideal Gas Law and Temperature
	Patterns in Nature: Scales
	What’s a Good Law of Physics?
	Domain of Validity, Extrapolation, Boundaries
Chapter 5 Accurate, False, Incomplete, and Natural Laws
	Induction and Falsification: Popper
	Between False, Incomplete, and Untestable Laws
		Naturalness
Chapter 6 Modern Physics and Intuition
	Representing Nature
	The Question of “Reality” (Quickly Dropped)
	The Question of Instruments
	The Turn of the 20th Century: Relativity and Quantum Theory
	A Few Neurological/Psychological/Sociological Questions
Chapter 7 Can We (Really) Change Paradigms?
	Unexpected Discoveries
	To Really Challenge Concepts
	Other Ways of Thinking in Physics
	Education and Conformity
Chapter 8 The End of Physics 1: Anthropic Solutions
	The Anthropic Principle
	The Multiverse
	Between Reductionism and Anthropism
Chapter 9 The End of Physics 2: Algorithms and Artificial Intelligence
	Artificial Intelligence in a Few Words
	The Example of Experimental Particle Physics
	Can We Do Without Theory?
Chapter 10 The End of Physics 3: Disenchantment
	The Original Sin: The Atomic Bomb and Its Use in 1945
	Overcoming Mistakes: The Example of Global Warming
Chapter 11 A New Age of Enlightenment?
	The Age of Enlightenment
	Current Successes in Physics and Some Future Paths for Revolution
	An Age of Enlightenment Today?
Chapter 12 Toward a Rationalist Spirituality
	Science and Aesthetics
	Science and Spirituality
	Integrating Artificial Intelligence
	Total Mindfulness, Total Awareness
	Toward a Rationalist Spirituality
Chapter 13 Believing in Physics Despite the Crises (or Because of Them)?
Index