On Fri, 05 Oct 2018 08:16:29 +0200, Paul Schlyter
wrote:

On Thu, 04 Oct 2018 07:16:42 -0600, Chris L Peterson
wrote:
If you would live for another 100-200 years I think you'd become
quite surprised about the development in physics more than once.

We'll see. But I don't think our core understanding of physics is
going to look all that different in a couple of centuries. Or ever.

The physicists of some 150 years ago had the same belief about their
physical worldview.

I'm not sure what that's supposed to demonstrate, though. Times
change. Our understanding of nature, and of how to understand nature,
is radically different now. Do you think that nature will never be
understood? That there's an infinite depth to the fundamental laws,
and we can never reach the end?

I see the Universe as a simple place, with simple laws. Indeed, that's
the general view of modern physics, and all the available evidence
supports that view. A view which had not developed 150 years ago. At
some point, it appears we'll know everything. And we are arguably much
farther along that path now than we were 150 years ago. Our big
theories are highly stable. They continue to hold up, and new
observations continue to support them. 150 years ago new observations
were overturning the (rather weak) theories of the time.

No, I think that our understanding of nature has changed radically in
150 years, and we are indeed looking at an accurate view of the big
picture now, and mostly just filling in details.