People have been predicting we are getting to the 'end of science' for over 100 years.
Somehow, I don't take that claim quite seroiusly. Such statements are
1894 Albert A, Michelson on the dedication of the Ryerson Physics Lab, at the University of Chicago.
quote:
The more important fundamental laws and facts of physical science have all been discovered, and these are now so firmly established that the possibility of their ever being supplanted in consequence of new discoveries is exceedingly remote....Future discoveries must be looked for in the sixth place of decimals."
Simon Newcomb, 1888 on astronomy "We are probably nearing the limit of all we can know about astronomy."
1900 Lord Kelvin There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement."
Maybe someday we will get there, but I suspect that our civilization will end , by self destruction or natural disaster, long before we get to the point that we are at the 'end of science'. We might get to the end of what WE will learn, but not the end of what we potentiall could know.
™ Version 4.2
