Quote:
Originally Posted by polak
I think it's outrageous to say that the mysteries of physics are solved?
We literally have zero idea of what makes up 95% of the mass-energy in the universe. Using the term "dark matter" and "dark energy" gives people the illusion that we know something about but what we call it is just a place holder. "Dark Matter" means nothing. We have no idea what it is. We don't know if it's dark and we don't know if it's matter. I think that's a pretty massive hole in our understanding of physics and probably means that we are completely out to lunch in our theories.
I also like a quote I heard in that "How the Universe Works" show where one of the physicists on there said that he thinks any time we get "infinity" or "infinite" as an answer, that means we're wrong. It makes sense. The idea of infinity seems like an excuse for humanity trying to explain something they do not understand.
That authors overall thesis might be right, maybe we will never know. Maybe the real true scope of physics of the universe are just not something we can comprehend. I just don't think you could come close to a convincing argument that "we figured it out".
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That isn't his argument. There will probably always be irreducible mysteries that the human creature will never be able to figure out. Chomsky used the example of a rat getting lost in a maze. The researcher, standing about the maze, cries out "how obvious!" Cognitively, the rat is just incapable of finding the solution. That is probably where humans stand viz-a-viz a lot of phenomena.