>>13266522he called it M theory because he knew the theory was becoming a manifold theory but he had spent his career up to that point shitting on manifold theorists saying it couldn’t be right and strings were the only consistent way to get quantum gravity. he once said “master, mystery, or manifold”. then once BFSS came out he redacted himself and said “master, mystery, or matrix” because he wanted to rub salt into the wounds of manifold theorists and absorb their accomplishments without acknowledging them. paul townsend has written articles about this but lol, he’ll never touch Ed
