Do you believe that we, as a species, will always have more to learn in the realm of physics? Or do you think we will some day understand all of the laws of the universe and have no more room for exploration in physics? I hold the latter position, but some very intelligent physicists that I know have surprised me by arguing for the former position. They argue that throughout the history of physics, our discoveries leave us with more questions than answers. I argue that, while that may have been true in the past, the past is not an accurate measure of the future. What do you all think?
It is overwhelming to think about human discovery of ALL the laws of physics and the universe... If we ever learn all there is to know, that time must be WAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaay on down the road. I sort of think that there will always be some knowledge that is illusive to the human mind.
i think if that happened, we would go seriously crazy... welll if our brains today knew what we will know tomorrow (or way in the future)...it just seems like somethings wouldnt trigger
Just before Einstein published his paper in 1905 there were people saying that there was nothing more to be discovered in physics. But that turned it all on its head. There is always something to be discovered. We we know is only a tiny drop in a vast ocean. In my own field there is a lot that is yet to be discovered. There are a lot of unanswered questions. A lot of how does this happen and such a such. Yet my area is something you would of thought we know lots about as we experience it everyday in our lives. It affects us all. It has the ability to bring us happyness it also has the ability to turn our lives upside down if not take them from us. The science I am talking about is meteorology.
What a ridiculous question. We already know that heavier-than-air machines cannot fly! And while the past might not be an accurate measure of the future, to use your term, it is absurd to use that as a premise to extrapolate INTO the future. I trust you see this is a tautological argument.
No no, you misunderstand me. I don't believe that the "past doesn't measure the future" argument is evidence in itself of my vision of the future...I just use it to illustrate that I don't think arguments along the lines of "We've always been able to learn more, so we will always be able to learn more" hold much weight. The main reason I think we will eventually hit a wall in physics is because there are a set number of physical laws. We don't know them all yet, and maybe we won't any time soon...but eventually I think we've got to reach a point where there are simply no new physical laws left to discover.
Au contraire! Making an allowance for error regarding certain principles of quantum theory (which still confounds a lot of scientists, myself included), we could simulate the universe on a computer if we A) knew the APPROXIMATE position and momentum of every particle, and B) had a really, really powerful computer. I understand what you're saying, but what I find equally amazing is that we humans have been able to figure out the origin and fate of the universe, the nature of black holes, nuclear power, and are beginning to close in on the nature of dark matter and superstrings...all without ever leaving our insignificant little blue planet. We've been able to do this because the universe is extremely uniform. Since the laws of physics are the same everywhere - except possibly at singularities - we can experiment here on earth and apply our findings to the rest of the universe. Interesting concept. That would be one really big brain though.
apart from the fact there are something we cannot know to arbitary accuracy. I suspect a point will come where we know how to find everything in the universe given correct starting conditions. Though I doubt we'll ever be able to obtain all these conditions. Even then there is still the question of what lies outside the universe which has never been the realm of physics, and may only ever be probed by theology, or maybe a scientific way to probe it will be found. Although at the moment physicists seem to be trying every trick in the book to avoid answering it such as the many universes theory. Or indeed the more common explanation of the big bang as the universe being more like an expanding room as opposed to an object expanding into a room, not so much because theres a good reason for this but simply because no one wants to try and explain the former. I suspect we'll run out of time long before we run out of questions.
I trust that you do not discount the possibility that the Universe may indeed have a consciousness, as may the very planet we walk upon.
Kandahar I think Fat Tony put it well ... “we will run out of time before we run out of questions”. The "box" issue seems to be that until we explore we don't know what’s outside the box. And then, when we explore we find that not only are we outside the box but that the box itself is bigger AND we are still in the box! Sorry for a clumsy analogy but that seems to be the way science progresses, in all directions by the way not just physics. The Universe, or at least our small part of it, seems to be incredibly complex and the more we delve into it the more complex it becomes. God Herself only knows what goes on in other galaxies.
Superstring theory would of course break the box argument because you finally reach something that as far as I understand it is boundless at least from a 3 dimensional perspective. Our universe has conditions defined within superstring theory, as an interaction of 4 dimensions of a higher dimensional space. Should, and thats a very big should, superstring theory be experimentally I think it well signal the end for the search for the theory of everything for the near future. There would be two possibilities, superstring theory would prove to be part of a larger theory, however as it encompasses everything we observe from every area of physics another massive disovery would be required for this. The second is that superstring theory would indeed form the basis of a theory of everything and physics would have found its holy grail. Either way it would not mean there is no more to learn. It is possible we will have a theory of everything and no way to leave this rock, so it would in no way mean the end of physics. As for God, does God exist ouside of however many dimensions there are, that I suspect will always be a matter of faith. After all if it could be proven then most of the worlds population would have their faith swept out from underneath them. Also we'd only have economics left to fight over.
I believe that physics goes far beyond the surface that we know it as, and in the upcoming years we will be utterly amazed at what we discover. We are bound the find something that will change the way we look at the universe, possibly even in the next couple of years. As for there always being something more to learn... I don't know, that depends if you think the universe will end up in a Star-Trek style technology deadlock. I am more optimistic and think that our exploration of the world around us will not end.
