4 ms·

> The big fundamental structures describing nature its working are more or less known. It's about details nowadays and it takes more time and effort to get the

> The big fundamental structures describing nature its working are more or less known. It's about details nowadays and it takes more time and effort to get the details right. This (bullshit) is what they thought in the 1890s,and is why physics was considered boring, basically a dead field. Oops!

deleted 8y ago
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jimjansen1 8y ago
Ok well I can't wait for us to send a probe lightyears away to determine if the universe is curved. See you in 2500 CE
Koshkin 8y ago
Difference is, this time around we might be standing at the edge of what we can possibly know and/or understand.
- davidivadavid 8y ago
  And how could we possibly estimate if we are or not?
dwaltrip 8y ago
Perhaps there are many levels to understanding and knowledge? It's not a binary thing. Models can be correct in a particular domain of application, but incorrect outside of those constraints. Progress is made by determining the constraints that define the domain of applicability for a given model, and then trying to find new models that are valid beyond those constraints [1]. For fundamental physics, we may have reached the edge of the current "level". Our results at this level seem to have a very wide domain of applicability. Who knows how long it will take to make a fundamental breakthrough that will really shake things up and deepen our understanding... [1] A concrete example: Newton's model of gravity is not "wrong" or "false". Its domain of applicability and validity is simply much more restricted than the models developed by Einstein. Interestingly and perhaps unsurprisingly, many common phenomena that humans care about fall squarely within the area where Newton's models are quite valid and useful.
ivan_ah 8y ago
Here is quote from 1894 by Albert A. Michelson that captures the attitude of that time: ``[...] it seems probable that most of the grand underlying principles have now been firmly established and that further advances are to be sought chiefly in the rigorous application of these principles to all the phenomena which come under our notice.'' That was before quantum physics, GR, transistors, lasers, etc...

deleted 8y ago

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jimjansen1 8y ago

Ok well I can't wait for us to send a probe lightyears away to determine if the universe is curved. See you in 2500 CE

Koshkin 8y ago

Difference is, this time around we might be standing at the edge of what we can possibly know and/or understand.

davidivadavid 8y ago
And how could we possibly estimate if we are or not?

dwaltrip 8y ago

Perhaps there are many levels to understanding and knowledge? It's not a binary thing. Models can be correct in a particular domain of application, but incorrect outside of those constraints. Progress is made by determining the constraints that define the domain of applicability for a given model, and then trying to find new models that are valid beyond those constraints [1]. For fundamental physics, we may have reached the edge of the current "level". Our results at this level seem to have a very wide domain of applicability. Who knows how long it will take to make a fundamental breakthrough that will really shake things up and deepen our understanding... [1] A concrete example: Newton's model of gravity is not "wrong" or "false". Its domain of applicability and validity is simply much more restricted than the models developed by Einstein. Interestingly and perhaps unsurprisingly, many common phenomena that humans care about fall squarely within the area where Newton's models are quite valid and useful.

ivan_ah 8y ago

Here is quote from 1894 by Albert A. Michelson that captures the attitude of that time: ``[...] it seems probable that most of the grand underlying principles have now been firmly established and that further advances are to be sought chiefly in the rigorous application of these principles to all the phenomena which come under our notice.'' That was before quantum physics, GR, transistors, lasers, etc...