EPILOGUE 303
ultimate simplicity and harmony of nature at the fundamental level.
The universe could have been perverse, random, or capricious. And
yet it appears to us to be whole, coherent, and beautiful.
Nobel laureate Steve Weinberg compares our search for a theory of
everything to the search for the North Pole. For centuries the ancient
mariners worked with maps in which the North Pole was missing. All
compass needles and charts pointed to this missing piece of the map,
yet no one had actually visited it. In the same way, all our data and theories point to a theory of everything. It is the missing piece of our equations.
There will always be things that are beyond our grasp, that are impossible to explore (such as the precise position of an electron, or the
world existing beyond the reach of the speed of light). But the fundamental laws, I believe, are knowable and finite. And the coming years
in physics could be the most exciting of all, as we explore the universe
with a new generation of particle accelerators, space-based gravity
wave detectors, and other technologies. We are not at the end, but at
the beginning of a new physics. But whatever we find, there will always be new horizons continually awaiting us.
ultimate simplicity and harmony of nature at the fundamental level.
The universe could have been perverse, random, or capricious. And
yet it appears to us to be whole, coherent, and beautiful.
Nobel laureate Steve Weinberg compares our search for a theory of
everything to the search for the North Pole. For centuries the ancient
mariners worked with maps in which the North Pole was missing. All
compass needles and charts pointed to this missing piece of the map,
yet no one had actually visited it. In the same way, all our data and theories point to a theory of everything. It is the missing piece of our equations.
There will always be things that are beyond our grasp, that are impossible to explore (such as the precise position of an electron, or the
world existing beyond the reach of the speed of light). But the fundamental laws, I believe, are knowable and finite. And the coming years
in physics could be the most exciting of all, as we explore the universe
with a new generation of particle accelerators, space-based gravity
wave detectors, and other technologies. We are not at the end, but at
the beginning of a new physics. But whatever we find, there will always be new horizons continually awaiting us.