Eng Rudi Waibel
Rudi Waibel | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | German |
| Known for | Critique of modern theoretical physics ("Das Glasperlenspiel der modernen Physik") |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Engineering |
| Institutions | Universität der Bundeswehr München (Neubiberg) |
Rudi Waibel is a German engineering professor (Dr.-Ing.) associated with Neubiberg, known as a critic of modern theoretical physics. He is listed in The Worldwide List of Dissident Scientists.
Ideas
Waibel is the author of the essay "Das Glasperlenspiel der modernen Physik" ("The Glass Bead Game of Modern Physics"), published in the journal raum&zeit (no. 55, 1992), written as a review of a book by the physicist Dieter Straub. Borrowing Hermann Hesse's image of the "Glass Bead Game," Waibel argues that theoretical physics has become a self-referential activity that privileges mathematical elegance over empirical reality. He criticises what he calls the "elephantiasis" of elementary-particle physics and the demands for ever larger particle accelerators, invoking Werner Heisenberg's own reservations about such utopian expectations. His critique lies outside the scientific mainstream.