Comment by MathMonkeyMan

Comment by MathMonkeyMan 13 hours ago

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Entropic gravity is a compelling framework. I think that most Physicists admit that it would be nice to believe that the yet unknown theory of everything is microscopic and quantum mechanical, and that the global and exquisitly weak force of gravity emerges from that theory as a sort of accounting error.

But there are so many potential assumptions baked into these theories that it's hard to believe when they claim, "look, Einstein's field equations."

evanb 6 hours ago

Jacobson showed that thermodynamics + special relativity = GR. Those are very very general assumptions, so general that it’s hard to even consider what else you might ask for.

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mr_mitm 10 hours ago

What are some of the most problematic assumptions in your opinion?

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  • nathan_compton 6 hours ago

    I'm not an expert in this field but I think reproducing realistic gravitational interactions seems to require a lot of fiddly set up with heat baths etc.

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layer8 2 hours ago

From the article, they don’t claim Einstein‘s field equations yet, just classical Newtonian gravity, at present.

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gus_massa 7 hours ago

> I think that most Physicists admit that it would be nice to believe that the yet unknown theory of everything is microscopic and quantum mechanical,

I agree.

> and that the global and exquisitly weak force of gravity emerges from that theory as a sort of accounting error.

Nah, it's probably just another weird family of bosons, just like the other forces.

From the article:

> Entropic gravity is very much a minority view. But it’s one that won’t die, and even detractors are loath to dismiss it altogether.

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