The Reasonable Effectiveness of Economy in the Natural Sciences

The god of the physicists is not a mathematician but an economist, since Sir Isaac Newton invented differential calculus. This is because the universe of the physicists is well described macroscopically with optimization solutions and the maximization and minimization of continuous functions through differential equations.

This was the unified way until quantum physics appeared. Now, we have a schizophrenic physics. On one side, the classical economist seeks very economic solutions armed with differential calculus, while on the other side, the gamer is armed with dice and probability calculus.

In this realm, the mathematics used by the physicists no longer works seamlessly. Quantum mechanics relies on complex probability amplitudes and wave functions, governed by the Schrödinger equation. It has been unfeasible for physicists to come up with a new character who overcomes the economist and the gamer and unifies both worlds.

Yup, Edward Witten is trying to introduce a kind of mathematician-archeologist with string theory, proposing that the fundamental constituents of the universe are one-dimensional strings. However, it seems, until now, not experimentally testable and still more like a cosmological fringe cult.