MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS   and  NARCISSISM
           ( The bother with theoretical physics. )
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NARCISSUS was  known for his beauty. He saw  his own reflection in the water and fell in love with it. Unable to leave the beauty of his reflection he stared at it until he died.
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Today mathematicians behave like Narcissus.
Why ?
In 1905  Einstein involved negative time in his SRT.  The negative time mathematically looked ''ugly'' and therefore Minkowski in 1908 changed negative time into positive time creating an absolute 4-D spacetime. The theory became very beautiful  and as a young physicist said me: '' My professor says that you cannot be physicist if you didn't understand the beauty of the  Minkowski’s interpretation.’' , but . . .  but nobody knew  and nobody knows  what 4-D really is.  (!) . . . Using the Minkowski method, Kaluza (in 1919) created the 5-D universe. To explain and to prove Kaluza’s theory O.Klein  in 1926 suggested that one dimension can wrap into a very – very small region – universe, but . . .  but Mincowski 4-D would stay unchanged.  (!)Mathematically the theory was beautiful  and interesting but  nobody knew  what 5-D is and how one of this dimensions can be physically wrapped. (!)
About 50 years later . . .
New forces were discovered and some physicists came to the conclusion that quantum particles cannot be ‘'a point'’. Quantum particle as   ‘a point’ doesn’t reflect the real image of a quantum particle.  And because a quantum particle at the same time is a wave - therefore it must vibrate. The simple example of vibration is a string of violin or guitar.  . . . ( the solution that quantum particles must have geometric form '' string '' is subjective not objective solution, because no one showed the law according to which a particle should be ''string'' ) . . .  But to exist  this string-particle needs 10 or  11 – dimensions. Later was invented another kind of string – loop string-particle that needed 26 or 27 dimensions. Physicists say that these theories are very beautiful. The problem is that nobody   knows if these extra- dimensions and these string – particles really exist.
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Narcissus died looking at his own beautiful image. The mathematical conception of '‘beauty'’ took  Physics in the Narcissus' way.  If  we want to be realistic people , we must understand: what Minkowski absolute spacetime 4-D  really is . . .  what does 4D reflect?
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P.S.
Most physicists were training how to use the apparatus of quantum mechanics, not its meaning.
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Yes, the narcissus is a lovely plant, thanks socratus

There is a fatal flaw with the Narcissus analogy. Whereas nothing existed for Narcissus apart from himself, the mathematics concerning itself with relativity or quantum mechanics deal exclusively with the outside world by definition.

Hermit wrote:There is a fatal flaw with the Narcissus analogy. Whereas nothing existed for Narcissus apart from himself, the mathematics concerning itself with relativity or quantum mechanics deal exclusively with the outside world by definition.

Only that part inside the human brain, though.

I know what a Minkowski space is, but beyond that I haven't the faintest clue what you're talking about.

aufbahrung wrote:

Hermit wrote:There is a fatal flaw with the Narcissus analogy. Whereas nothing existed for Narcissus apart from himself, the mathematics concerning itself with relativity or quantum mechanics deal exclusively with the outside world by definition.

Only that part inside the human brain, though.

How is that special to what Soccy refers to as today's mathematicians?

Thommo wrote:I know what a Minkowski space is, but beyond that I haven't the faintest clue what you're talking about.

I think the OP doesn't much like M-Theory. I await eagerly OP's peer-reviewed refutation of M-Theory.