On Wed, 3 Oct 2018 16:33:10 -0700 (PDT), Quadibloc
wrote:

Certainly. But I'd say the evidence is that our knowledge is
approaching complete. That we have a finished jigsaw puzzle that's
just missing a few pieces. They're some very important pieces, of
course, but not ones that are going to make the whole picture look
different.

I note that our core theories have been stable for a very long time
now. New discoveries (e.g. dark energy) result in tweaks to existing
theory, not throwing out major areas of physics and replacing them
with something completely different (the sort of thing that did happen
150 years ago). I take that as in indicator that our theories are
converging on ground truth.

Yes, but that much has been true since Newton. Relativity and quantum mechanics
are also "tweaks" that didn't overturn the basic physics on which most of our
technology is based. To say that they overturned everything, while dark matter
is a "tweak" is debatable.

I disagree. Both relativity and quantum mechanics were radically new
physics that completely changed our understanding of the Universe.
Dark energy (and even less, dark matter) are nothing at all like that.

Although it is true that relativity and quantum mechanics did revise the very
roots of physics, even if the outcome in everyday life didn't change much. But
then, what about the much later discovery of quarks?

Quarks were proposed on purely theoretical grounds as the Standard
Model was approaching its current (and presumably nearly final) form.
Again, jigsaw pieces within a picture that could be broadly seen, not
an entirely new picture at all.