> Modern physics over the last one hundred years has been painting itself into lots of interesting corners. <
Yes, indeed. That’s true of science in general. And it’s not a surprising thing. Every advance in science will bring unanswered questions along with it.
Now, here’s how things have changed. At one time it was was encouraged to point out those unanswered questions, and to even challenge the validity of the advance.
Not so much any more. A perfect example of that is with Climate Change. That theory is full of holes.
But don’t you dare point that out! It is forbidden.
One of the problems I see in science is that we have seen great advances in mathematics (which are legit and amazing).
The problem is that the advanced mathematics gets scientists overconfident—just because they can make mathematical models that are brilliant and internally consistent does not mean that they are a match with the real natural world.
That verification is only possible with direct observation—and a lot of modern physics relies on indirect inference from data that we may not fully understand.
If the foundation is not solid then we can get lost building a house of cards that will eventually collapse—even though the math remained correct.
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Analogy: Mathematics can prove amazing in calculating the number of angels on different portions of the head of a pin—but ultimately cannot prove they are actually there.
Direct observation is the missing piece.