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Eric Weinstein

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with Eric W. Weisstein.

Eric Weinstein
Born
Eric Ross Weinstein

(1965-10-26) October 26, 1965 (age 58)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
EducationUniversity of Pennsylvania (BA)
Harvard University (MA, PhD)
Occupation(s)Venture capital fund manager, podcast host
Known forIntellectual dark web
SpousePia Malaney[1]
RelativesBret Weinstein (brother)

Eric Ross Weinstein (/ˈwaɪnstaɪn/; born October 26, 1965[2]) is an American investor and financial executive. As of 2021, he is managing director for the American venture capital firm Thiel Capital.[3] Weinstein coined the term "intellectual dark web" and has proposed a theory of everything called "Geometric Unity" that has largely been met with skepticism in the scientific community.[4][5]

Education

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Weinstein received a Ph.D. in mathematical physics from Harvard University in 1992 under the supervision of Raoul Bott.[6][7] In his dissertation, "Extension of Self-Dual Yang-Mills Equations Across the Eighth Dimension", Weinstein showed that the self-dual Yang–Mills equations were not peculiar to dimension four and admitted generalizations to higher dimensions.[8]

Career

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Finance

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In 2013, Weinstein was working as an economist and consultant at the Natron Group, a New York City–based hedge fund.[4][5][9][10] As of 2021, Weinstein is the managing director for Thiel Capital, a venture capital firm founded by American financier Peter Thiel that invests in technology and life sciences–related companies.[10][3][11][1]

Theory of everything

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Despite having left academia more than two decades prior,[4] Weinstein was invited to give a lecture at Oxford University's Clarendon Laboratory in May 2013, where he presented his proposed theory of everything called "Geometric Unity" (GU). The lecture was organized by mathematician Marcus du Sautoy, who also wrote an overview of the theory for The Guardian newspaper.[5] Weinstein posits that four-dimensional spacetime as described by general relativity is embedded within a 14-dimensional "observerse",[5] in which dark energy is a type of fundamental force whose strength varies from location to location. The theory claims that the dark matter problem is a result of an asymmetry in chirality or "handedness" in the Standard Model of particle physics, creating the illusion of missing matter in the observable universe.[4] It also predicts more than 150 currently undiscovered subatomic particles.[4]

Physicists expressed skepticism about GU,[5] and criticized Weinstein and du Sautoy for not publishing any equations related to the theory, which is a normal part of scholarly peer review in physics.[10][5][12] Physicist David Kaplan praised Weinstein for presenting a coherent set of ideas from outside academia, but said the theory was "incomplete" without a set of equations from which testable predictions could be derived.[4] Mathematician Edward Frenkel said the theory could possibly lead to "new answers to the big questions" after the necessary work of making testable predictions.[4] Physicist Jim al-Khalili described Weinstein's claims as "too sweeping", given that the theory could not be experimentally verified.[4] Physicist Joseph Conlon of Oxford stated that some of the new subatomic particles predicted by Weinstein would already have been detected in existing accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider.[5] Science writer Jennifer Ouellette criticized the favorable coverage given to the theory by The Guardian, arguing that experts could not properly evaluate Weinstein's ideas without a published paper.[13]

In April 2021, Weinstein published a paper on Geometric Unity via an independent website and appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience to discuss it. In the paper, Weinstein stated that he was "not a physicist" and that the paper was a "work of entertainment".[10] According to Vice, the paper generated "new interest in Geometric Unity and intense criticism from scientists who remain unconvinced".[10] Cosmologist Richard Easther of the University of Auckland said Weinstein's theory has had "no visible impact" and "looked massively undercooked after the buildup it got from du Sautoy".[10] Timothy Nguyen, whose PhD thesis intersects with Weinstein's work, said what Weinstein has presented so far has "gaps, both mathematical and physical in origin" that "jeopardize Geometric Unity as a well-defined theory, much less one that is a candidate for a theory of everything."[10]

Other ventures

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Weinstein hosts a podcast called The Portal.[14] As of 2024, he is a member of the research team on The Galileo Project, founded by astrophysicist Avi Loeb to investigate potential signs of extraterrestrial technology.[15][third-party source needed]

Personal life

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Weinstein coined the term "intellectual dark web", later popularized by New York Times opinion editor Bari Weiss. The term has been applied to a group of academics and social commentators who express concerns over the perceived excesses of left-wing identity politics.[16]

References

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  1. ^ a b McClurg, Lesley (May 7, 2015). "Let's Talk About Death Over Dinner". The Salt. NPR. Retrieved July 10, 2024.
  2. ^ Weinstein, Eric [@EricRWeinstein] (October 26, 2020). "Midway through my 55th birthday. Still no sign of a personal "I can't turn 55." message from @sammyhagar ...despite obvious hinting earlier in the day. Still, any day that starts with wine tasting can't be all bad..." (Tweet). Retrieved October 26, 2020 – via Twitter.
  3. ^ a b Wallace-Wells, Benjamin (May 13, 2021). "The Rise of the Thielists". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on August 30, 2021. Retrieved July 10, 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Jha, Alok (May 23, 2013). "Roll over Einstein: meet Weinstein". Notes & Theories. The Guardian. Retrieved July 10, 2024. Until Weinstein produces a paper, physicists will remain unconvinced and, crucially, unable to properly assess the claims he is making.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Aron, Jacob (June 2013). "How to test Weinstein's provocative theory of everything". New Scientist. Vol. 218, no. 2920. pp. 10 ff. doi:10.1016/s0262-4079(13)61403-7. ISSN 0262-4079. [W]ith no published equations to review, the highly public airing of his theory has generated heated controversy. Today, Weinstein attempted to rectify the situation by repeating his lecture at Oxford. This time a number of physicists were in the lecture hall. Most remain doubtful.
  6. ^ Eric Weinstein at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  7. ^ Tu, Loring W. (May 2006). "The Life and Works of Raoul Bott" (PDF). Notices of the American Mathematical Society. 53 (5): 558. ISSN 1088-9477. Retrieved July 10, 2024. Reprinted in:
    Tu, Loring W., ed. (2018). Raoul Bott: Collected Papers, Volume 5. Cham: Birkhäuser. p. 47. ISBN 978-3-319-51781-0.
  8. ^ Beaulieu, Laurent; Kanno, Hiroaki; Singer, I. M. (1998). "Special Quantum Field Theories in Eight And Other Dimensions". Communications in Mathematical Physics. 194 (1): 149–175. arXiv:hep-th/9704167. Bibcode:1998CMaPh.194..149B. doi:10.1007/s002200050353. ISSN 0010-3616. S2CID 3238703.
  9. ^ Mack, Katherine J. (June 6, 2013). "Einstein to Weinstein: the lone genius is an exception to the rule". The Conversation. Retrieved July 10, 2024.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Ongweso, Edward Jr. (April 12, 2021). "Eric Weinstein Says He Solved the Universe's Mysteries. Scientists Disagree". Motherboard. Vice. Retrieved July 10, 2024.
  11. ^ Illing, Sean (July 4, 2018). "Why capitalism won't survive without socialism". Vox (interview). Retrieved July 10, 2024.
  12. ^ Pontzen, Andrew (May 24, 2013). "Weinstein's theory of everything is probably nothing". New Scientist. Retrieved June 2, 2013. Grand claims like Weinstein's would – in the normal course of science – be accompanied by a technical paper explaining their foundations. [...] Du Sautoy [...] has short-circuited science's basic checks and balances.
  13. ^ Ouellette, Jennifer (May 24, 2013). "Dear Guardian: You've Been Played". Cocktail Party Physics. Scientific American Blog Network. Archived from the original on February 10, 2021. Retrieved July 10, 2024.
  14. ^ Castronuovo, Celine (January 15, 2021). "Eric Weinstein: It's time to end the business model of division". The Hill. Retrieved July 13, 2024.
  15. ^ "Eric Weinstein". The Galileo Project. Harvard University. n.d. Retrieved July 10, 2024.
  16. ^ Sheedy, Matt (2022). Owning the Secular: Religious Symbols, Culture Wars, Western Fragility. Routledge Focus on Religion. London: Routledge. pp. 89–90. doi:10.4324/9781003031239. ISBN 978-0-367-46802-6.

Further reading

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