Well, you don't give an attribution for the quote. Was the review by a String Theory True Believer? The fact that Smolin is a professor of physics does seem to give him some credibility. Particularly when he is just giving a short overview of a number of different ideas which are being investigated. Please note: I said "which are being investigated". If a proposal is being investigated you have to provide some proof that it is wrong before you start running off about its total lack of credibility. I expect that some or all of them are wrong. Until somebody comes up with a theory that can be fully tested I am certainly not going to accept any body's word that any of them is junk.
String Theory may be a really beautiful theory, but beauty in physical theories is not a clear indication of truth. The Ptolemaic model is a beautiful theory that describes the motion of the planets in good detail. It is wrong. So String Theory may be wrong, no matter how beautiful it is. I personally have very little faith in it, but that doesn't mean it is wrong, it just means that I don't like it.
Personally I think that both space and time are probably quantized. That isn't based on any great knowledge, just a feeling that since everything else seems to be quantized then space and time should match.
Bill Gill
