how can a string not be composed of anything and remain a viable entity? If strings are "strings of numbers", that would satisfy the requirement of allowing them a modus of existence, particular properties, and avenue of analysis...

 

Strings are to modern physics what atoms were to Dalton. They exist at the Planck length (as far as i have read the concept) and are indivisible (just like atoms were in the pristine model). It is not so much a paradigm shift as a different way of looking at the same thing.

Edited November 23, 201411 yr by petrushka.googol

how can a string not be composed of anything and remain a viable entity?

 

Because they are fundamental. Currently, electrons, for example, are thought to be fundamental and are not composed of anything. That is what "fundamental" means.