> But when they tried to quantize gravity, they ran into unnatural infinities that had to be sidestepped with clumsy mathematical tricks.
Maybe they run into unnatural infinities because all of our formalisms in physics are still fundamentally continuous rather than discrete. Uncountable infinities are baked right into the foundations of how we use reason about these systems, so infinities will naturally result. Physics has repeatedly had to tame infinities by elaborate tricks, or by eliminating them entirely [1].
Some people are increasingly looking to discrete formalisms, and I think this is a promising way forward, both for mathematics and physics.
Maybe they run into unnatural infinities because all of our formalisms in physics are still fundamentally continuous rather than discrete. Uncountable infinities are baked right into the foundations of how we use reason about these systems, so infinities will naturally result. Physics has repeatedly had to tame infinities by elaborate tricks, or by eliminating them entirely [1].
Some people are increasingly looking to discrete formalisms, and I think this is a promising way forward, both for mathematics and physics.
[1] Struggles with the Continuum, https://arxiv.org/abs/1609.01421