Author Archives: woit

The Situation at Columbia XXXIII

Posted on September 21, 2025 by woit

The fall semester is now under way at Columbia, and in many ways things are normal: enrollments are as usual or higher, foreign students have mostly gotten visas and are on campus. There are some new things though which are … Continue reading →

Posted in The Situation at Columbia | 4 Comments

Two Number Theory Items (and Woody Allen)

Posted on September 20, 2025 by woit

James Douglas Boyd has recently spent a lot of time interacting with Mochizuki and others at RIMS working in anabelian geometry. Material from interviews he conducted are available here (Mochizuki on IUT) and here (on anabelian geometry at RIMS). He … Continue reading →

Posted in abc Conjecture, Uncategorized | 12 Comments

Epistemic Collapse at the WSJ

Posted on September 11, 2025 by woit

For a long time now fundamental theoretical physics has been suffering not just from a slowdown in progress, but from a sort of intellectual collapse (I wrote about this here a while back in the context of “epistemic collapse”: the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 77 Comments

Bad Craziness

Posted on August 28, 2025 by woit

Given the ever more obvious case that genocide is going on in Gaza, I had been thinking that Scott Aaronson’s going quiet on the issue meant that he was starting to realize that this had become indefensible. Turns out I … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 90 Comments

The Situation at Columbia XXXII

Posted on August 25, 2025 by woit

Actually, nothing really new at Columbia. New students arriving, classes start next week. Still tight security at the gates and the administration’s highest priority is to continue to ensure that no “antisemitic” protest of the war crimes going on in … Continue reading →

Posted in The Situation at Columbia | 41 Comments

Pet Peeves

Posted on August 13, 2025 by woit

It’s getting hard to wake up every day, read the latest news of the slaughter of civilians in Gaza and the plans to finish off or exile the rest, then go through the two ID checks at the campus gate … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 47 Comments

The Situation at Columbia XXXI

Posted on August 1, 2025 by woit

Columbia’s new policies intended to stop and punish any on-campus criticism of the Gaza genocide by characterizing it as “antisemitism” have made it impossible for Rashid Khalidi to teach his planned fall course. See his explanation here, which ends with: … Continue reading →

Posted in The Situation at Columbia | 10 Comments

Various and Sundry

Posted on July 31, 2025 by woit

Some random things that may be of interest: Ethan Siegel has a discussion of “vibe physics“, people convincing themselves that they can solve fundamental scientific problems by chatting with an LLM. For a story about one billionaire doing this, see … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 25 Comments

The Situation at Columbia XXX

Posted on July 26, 2025 by woit

The trustees on Friday changed the Charters and Statutes of the university, something it seems they can just do when they feel like it, without consulting with anyone or telling the community what they’ve done. Stand Columbia (Tao Tan) is … Continue reading →

Posted in The Situation at Columbia | 10 Comments

The Situation at Columbia XXIX

Posted on July 24, 2025 by woit

The long-awaited second cave-in by the Columbia trustees to Trump demands was announced yesterday, details here. A few initial comments: Columbia law professor David Pozen explains that this is part of a new form of autocratic government in the US: … Continue reading →

Posted in The Situation at Columbia | 11 Comments