Depending on how familiar you are with FQXi, you may know that we like to cause a little mischief at our conferences. Knowing that we had famed string theorist Raphael Bousso and Carlo Rovelli, one of the originators of loop quantum gravity, in the same room, we couldn't resist asking them to debate these rivals routes to a theory of quantum gravity.
Both men are passionate about their work and fierce defenders of their own theories. So, of course, we turned the debate upside down and asked them argue the *reverse* position.
So here's LQG proponent Carlo Rovelli explaining why anyone with any sense would be a string theorist, while string theorist Raphael Bousso staunchly defends LQG as the superior theory:
[youtube:jEr038WOKFI, 560, 340]
And if you liked that, here are some of our classic mock debates from our previous meeting.
Julian Barbour and Tim Maudlin reverse debate the reality of time:
[youtube:lKIjXJZASCg, 560, 340]
And David Albert and David Wallace switch positions on the Many World's Interpretation of quantum mechanics:
[youtube:DGdO929Rpns, 560, 340]