Something struck me the other day.
Why is it so damn difficult to progress Physics?
Some would argue: That is because the ways of Nature are Subtle and Difficult!
With that I would agree, but I think there is more to it than that.
I think perhaps the Physical Sciences could learn something from Software Development.
In the software industry, new ideas are constantly floated and rigorously pursued to failure and exhaustion. It seems to me that Software Developers very well understand that the Nature of Computing is Subtle and Difficult. Further, they are over feeling bad when a project did not work. They simply junk the source code and move on. There is no shame there, just a thing learned and a new brick in the foundations of the discipline.
What then of Physics?
Things do not work this way in the Physical Sciences. There is Precious Reputation to be defended. There are Ivory Towers to be built, and Gilt Ramparts to defend. Mostly there is Hierarchy and there is Orthodoxy. There are Popes and Priests and Cardinals. There are fancy cloaks, titles and prizes. Perhaps even funny hats and Ermine Collars.
In short, there is a bunch of Ceremony and Puff-Penguin Nonsense there for the Crowd and not Progress. It is Ritual Blather to dissuade anyone from Perspicacious Inquiry.
You see, Physics is a difficult enough Science that we manage to Canonize each faltering step forward. The moment one pushes a toe forward we have to canonize that and halt all further progress for a century or two.
It is the most agonizingly hide-bound Science on the Planet.
Think about it.
Right now we have grown Men and Women running around declaring that Many-Worlds is Gospel and Everything Happens at Once. They deny the very existence of the individual events on which accumulated evidence the theory is founded.
This is a Divine Comedy worthy of the Middle Ages.
Yet there are few voices raised against such nonsense.
It is Canon.
It is Gospel.
It is Law.
However, in my world it is Pure Bunkum.
Let us move forth in Agile Fashion.
Fork the Physics Kernel. Try new things. See what works.