We need to find out if we are missing something...

Hubris & History of Science

"We need to find out if we are missing something on how to connect the beginning of the universe and the present day," said Adam Riess. and here. A statement made a few months ago in response to the fact that different models for the age & expansion of the Universe completely contradict each other.

There might be *something* we don’t know - - about the evolution of the entire Universe…Ya Think? Do these people live on a different planet than me?

A Doctor of Philosophy in Physics can evaluate the underlying structure of Physics. This becomes more challenging as the years go by because there are so many layers of ideas. For example, who understands the history of Quantum Mechanics? I do not mean who can recount the highlights, such as “ultraviolet catastrophe BAD, Plank quantization GOOD.” I mean who understands all the strengths and weaknesses of the various building blocks of the many topics that are to be found in a textbook on QM? I am still working on it, now decades after earning my PhD.

The edifice of modern physics is built upon many questionable decisions, some even outrageous - Feynman renormalization techniques being a poster-child for the outrageous. Taken all together the textbook techniques allow us to calculate quantities we have decided are the ones looking for. While the quantities we cannot calculate are ignored. A good modern resource for critical review is the YouTube channel “See the Pattern” where many thorny Physics topics are explored in at least some depth.

Humility comes with understanding. If anyone had a MINIMUM of understanding of physics, they would NEVER say “there might be something we do not understand about the entire history of the Universe.” We actually understand ALMOST NOTHING. The models used today will not be used tomorrow. The circuits of the heavens will be re-drawn in hyperbolic geometry so enormous distances are refactored into a hall-of-mirrors, time will be found to be an artifact of the senses, Carbon Dioxide will be acknowledged as a necessary food for Organic Life on Earth, genes will be found to be the least important part of our genetics, and all reasonable scientists will once again find the ether necessary.

The sort of foppish strutting that imagines we basically have everything buttoned up makes my claws come out. These people should be forced to spend a couple of years farming, fixing engines, and working with toddlers - and then see if there might be something they do not understand about the Universe.