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Comment by snorrah | Hacker News Reader

I also like how their possible suggestions for why theories might not be panning out points to not enough understanding about something. So now we have a new scientific understanding to pursue. And on the way to figuring out /that/ new thing, we'll probably run into even more questions that need answering!

In some ways, this is exciting - deepening mysteries always provoking further study. But on the flip side, it also makes me ponder the thought that maybe we will never gain true knowledge of the universe. At least, probably not before a very long time passes.

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> But on the flip side, it also makes me ponder the thought that maybe we will never gain true knowledge of the universe.

Therefore, we might need to address the problem from the other end. This requires a totally different mindset. See for example the work done here: [1], or see the video lectures starting here: [2]

[1] http://www.liv.ac.uk/physical-sciences/events/fpl/

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2XdhzCORbo

It's been 472 since humanity realized the Earth moves around a star, 328 years since we knew the equations of gravitation, only 100 since we learned about GR, and only 15 years since we were certain the universe is expanding.

I think we might be excused to take a few more years to nail down the rest of gravitation. There's an embarrassment of riches of data; it just needs assembling into a picture.

And 412 since someone noticed "[T]here are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

maybe we will never gain true knowledge of the universe

If you are equating true knowledge with perfect knowledge, this obviously should be considered a straw-man. There is no reason why the rules completely describing universe should have to fit in a human mind. Our brains were evolved to solve the specific context of our prehistoric survival.

It goes deeper than that. I think the human mind is fundamentally incapable of understanding Nature and reality. We make clever models, increasingly sophisticated and successful at manipulating matter and energy within the limited realm of our perception.

However, we will never truly grasp the outside World. Every discovery will open up another can of worms, in an endless chase for more refined models. Today it's Dark Energy and Dark Matter. Centuries from now our views will seem as naïve and simplistic as Phlogistics and 19th-century Ether.

That's OK though, as long as we're having fun. And don't blow ourselves up. And love and laugh.

If our models are of ever-increasing sophistication and empirical success, why don't they count as truly grasping the world?

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