On 07/01/2011 08:59 PM, Darren New wrote:

> Googling "string theory test" brings up a bunch, but I haven't looked at
> many of them. Indeed, I myself thought it was a fundamental attribute of
> string theory that it could describe every possible set of physical
> laws, or some such.

String theory is one possible candidate for the Theory of Everything 
(ToE). Currently we have a theory of big things (general relativity) and 
a separate, incompatible theory of small things (QED). A ToE is not 
*literally* a theory that explains "everything", it just means a single, 
consistent theory that works over all scales.

So yes, the /idea/ is that eventually string theory should be able to 
explain and make predictions about the real world. And the day that 
happens, it will be science. But until that day, it is only 
proto-science, no matter how sciencey it looks.

The fundamental difference between ST and ID, of course, is that ST has 
a realistic possibility of becoming testable some day soon. ID does not.

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