Onf of the things I've long suspected about some of the fun theories that
have been toyed with since roughly the 1980s (when I was a student) is that
physicists who don't fully understand how commonly algebraic structures are
beautiful have fallen in love with the beauty of one and taken the faintest hint
of an excuse to hope it'll provide a good model for physics. I describe the
theories that result as alchemical
(or, in an ancient spelling,
alchymical) since, like alchemy, the theory is driven more by how cool the
theory looks than by how much it has to do with reality. So it's been
delightful to discover I'm not alone: a friend sent
me a link to a video
by Sabine
Hossenfelder which articulates the core problem with this approach far
better than I can. I consider it recommended viewing !