Dr Faustus of Modern Physics - Department of Speech, Music and ...
Dr Faustus of Modern Physics - Department of Speech, Music and ...
Dr Faustus of Modern Physics - Department of Speech, Music and ...
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Chapter 18<br />
End <strong>of</strong> <strong>Physics</strong>?<br />
Up to now, most people have implicitly assumed that there is an<br />
ultimate theory, that we will eventually discover. Indeed, I myself<br />
have suggested we might find it quite soon. (Hawking)<br />
18.1 Books Predicting End <strong>of</strong> <strong>Physics</strong><br />
In recent years a growing skepticism has been articulated directed to methods<br />
<strong>and</strong> questions pursued in modern physics:<br />
• The End <strong>of</strong> <strong>Physics</strong> by David Lindley.<br />
• Not Even Wrong by Lee Smolin.<br />
• A Different Universe: Reinventing <strong>Physics</strong> from the Bottom Up by<br />
Robert Laughlin.<br />
18.2 Hawking: No End <strong>of</strong> <strong>Physics</strong><br />
From a lecture by Stephen Hawking we collect in condensed form the following<br />
summary <strong>of</strong> modern physics:<br />
• Will we ever find a complete form <strong>of</strong> the laws <strong>of</strong> nature? It was Newton’s<br />
Principia Mathematica in 1687, containing his theory <strong>of</strong> universal<br />
gravitation, that made the laws quantitative <strong>and</strong> precise. This led to the<br />
idea <strong>of</strong> scientific determinism: If at one time, one knew the positions<br />
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