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I suspect that meaningful progress in physics is going to face two hurdles for a couple of decades: * Society has to catch up with what we have discovered over
by II2II 6y ago
I suspect that meaningful progress in physics is going to face two hurdles for a couple of decades:
* Society has to catch up with what we have discovered over the past century. The physics that most people learn is primarily classical mechanics plus a bit of electricity and magnetism. There is some discussion of other aspects of physics, but it tends to be limited to discussion. You need some degree of mathematical understanding in order for physics to have a meaningful impact. The mathematical basis is important since it gives the ability to test the validity of physical models. This ability to verify or falsify a model is fundamental to science. High level discussions of a topic usually ignore the mathematics, which means they are asking students to accept something based upon authority. That is problematic since it is far too easy to choose an authority based upon criteria other than verifiable truths when one doesn't have the tools to verify what is being said.
* Technology also has to play catch-up. Physics has always been an expensive field since it pushes the boundaries of engineering. The precision instruments of past centuries may appear as quaint as a (quality) modern ruler, but they were pushing the limits of the times. That being said, there is a difference in scale. Pushing the boundaries of physics may have taken the resources of a nation in the recent past and wealthy benefactors in the more distant past. Some of the more recent experiments, though admittedly exceptional, take an international effort.
I don't really think that physics is coming to an end. I do think that some areas of physics will stagnate until humanity catches up with it.
- ISL 6y agoIf quantum-computing sees broad application, middle-schoolers will be speaking the language of bras and kets within a decade.
- cinquemb 6y ago> If quantum-computing sees broad application, middle-schoolers will be speaking the language of bras and kets within a decade. If quantum-computing sees broad application, middle-schoolers will be speaking the language of bras and kets within a couple of centuries, if the concept of middle school as we imagine/experience it today is even around and hasn't been relegated in part by being able to evoke a certain distribution of mass/energy in what we call our brains that could encode such knowledge from birth…
- canjobear 6y ago> There is some discussion of other aspects of physics, but it tends to be limited to discussion. You need some degree of mathematical understanding in order for physics to have a meaningful impact. What meaningful impact would, say, quantum chromodynamics have on the life of anyone other than a theoretical physicist? I don't see how more widespread education about these things would affect the field of physics itself, since any version taught to the masses would have to be extremely boiled down.
- cinquemb 6y ago> What meaningful impact would, say, quantum chromodynamics have on the life of anyone other than a theoretical physicist? Its not hard to imagine (at least for me) arcane bits of knowledge that only centuries later (if such hasn't been "lost" in between) became more relevant to others endeavors if one looks to history as any example… our current collective imagination from this present moment of what we know is no boundary on what could ever be known or useful… and for those who could imagine may never live long enough to see what could come from such.