From: Gordon Worley (redbird@rbisland.cx)
Date: Wed Jun 12 2002 - 11:27:16 MDT
On Wednesday, June 12, 2002, at 11:22 AM, Mike & Donna Deering wrote:
> The end of theoretical physics. It appears with the impending
> discovery of the Higgs boson that we may be very close to a complete
> TOE. It seems quite ironic that our greatest attempt at simplification
> has resulted in the most complex theory even invented.
But don't forget, 100 years ago theoretical physics also looked like it
was pretty much dead. Everything was understood, more or less. Then
along comes general relativity and quantum mechanics. Oops, guess there
was some stuff we didn't know. I'm sure any TOE we come up with will be
stubbed by new discoveries. And, if we can't find any, then we'll just
have to create a new universe and start playing with that. :-)
> The elimination of death, disease, disability, and infirmity.
Well, we're likely to see further extended life spans, but the end of
people being physically troubled is not near (unless the Singularity
happens this evening).
> Space exploration.
Due to cost limitations, unless the private sector gets its act together
I don't think we can expect to see much in the way of space
exploration. The except would be if the Chinese pump a lot of money
into their space program, in which case we'll have another Space Race
with the US.
> What have I left out?
Probably lots of things that no one sees coming. The future's often
full of surprises because no one was really looking in the right
direction.
-- Gordon Worley `When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty http://www.rbisland.cx/ said, `it means just what I choose redbird@rbisland.cx it to mean--neither more nor less.' PGP: 0xBBD3B003 --Lewis Carroll
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